In Sweden - Education - Education system - Adult education

ADULT EDUCATION

Adult education in Sweden is wide-ranging and based on a long tradition. It is provided in many different forms and under many different auspices, ranging from national or municipal adult education to labour market programmes and personnel training and competence development at work. Popular adult education has a long history in Sweden.

The public sector school system for adults includes municipal adult education (komvux), adult education for intellectually handicapped (särvux), Swedish language teaching for immigrants (svenska för invandrare) and National Schools for Adults (Statens skola för vuxna). The Adult Education Initiative (kunskapslyftet) is a five year programme, launched in 1997 in order to boost adult education and training in Sweden. A pilot project involving qualified vocational education (kvalificerad yrkesutbildning) is also currently carried out.

The public education system for adults will be presented below. Popular adult education, labour market training and on-the job training and competence development, which all may have links to the formal system, will also be briefly treated.

Specific legislative framework

The public school system for adults (municipal adult education, adult education for intellectually handicapped, Swedish language teaching for immigrants and National Schools for Adults) is regulated under the Education Act and in a number of ordinances. The right to basic adult education for adults who have not achieved the compulsory basic school leaving certificate is stipulated by law.

The Adult Education Initiative and the pilot projects involving qualified vocational education are regulated in ordinances.

Some of the conditions for State grants e.g. to folk high schools are regulated by law. Some of the special aims of popular adult education are stated there but there are basically no rules - neither on how popular education should be organised nor regarding its content.

Labour market training is regulated under the Employment training ordinance.

There is no legislation givening entitlement to or influence on on-the-job training. Decisions related to competence development are made by the employer - with various degrees of influence exerted by the trade unions. The conditions under which companies and organisations purchases education and training from municipalities and county councils are however stipulated by law.

Since 1975 all employees have been entitled by law to educational leave. The choice of study rests entirely with the individual. There are no restrictions on the duration of studies.

Administration

As in the case with youth education Parliament and the Government should control educational activities within the public system for adult education by defining national goals and guidelines for education, while the central and local authorities together with the different organisers are responsible for ensuring that activities are organised in line with national goals.

The municipalities are responsible for carrying out municipal adult education, adult education for intellectually handicapped and Swedish language teaching for immigrants.

The National Schools for Adults (Statens skola för vuxna) are run by the State. The activities are managed by two school units located to different parts of the country. The Government appoints a governing body for each school on a proposal from the municipality concerned.

The management by objectives applies also to the popular education activities which are subsidised by the state. The Council for Popular Education is responsible for the coordination, distribution of state grants and evaluation of popular education activities.

The Labour Market Administration has overall responsibility for programmes in this field. Its central decision-making body, the Labour Market Board (Arbetsmarknadsstyrelsen), directs, coordinates and develops labour market policy and allocates government funds in this field.

Funding

Municipal adult education, adult education for intellectually handicapped and Swedish for immigrants are all parts of the public school system and are totally funded by the municipal budget, which consists of state grants and local tax revenues. National Schools for adults are financed by the State. Tuition is free of charge. The Adult Education Initiative and the pilot project on qualified vocational education are funded by the State.

Popular adult education is also largely financed by means of support from the state, county councils and municipalities. In addition, they have incomes from educational activities organised on a commission basis. State support to adult education organisations and folk high schools is allocated by the Council for Popular Adult Education.

As regards labour market training the Swedish parliament allocates funding to the National Labour Market Board, which in turn distributes funding to county labour boards and employment offices. These bodies are responsible for purchasing various training packages.

Since one of the fundamental principles is that no one should be prevented from studying due to a lack of financial resources, there are various financial assistance schemes provided by the State for adult students, normally consisting of grants (of various size) in combination with a repayable loan. Students have right to study assistance for both full-time and part-time studies. Groups taking part in labour market training receive grants corresponding to the level of unemployment benefit.

Organisation

Public school system

Municipal adult education (komvux)
Municipal adult education includes both basic and upper secondary adult education. Komvux was introduced in 1968 for the benefit of adults lacking the equivalent of basic or upper secondary schooling. A new komvux curriculum came into force in 1994.

Studies within municipal adult education lead to formal qualifications in individual subjects or to the equivalent of a complete leaving certificate from the compulsory and upper secondary school. Education is organised in the form of separate courses, which should be arranged in such a way that students can study full-time, part-time or in their spare time and thus combine their studies with employment. The students are also free to choose their own study programme and they can also combine studies at compulsory and upper secondary level.

Basic adult education
Basic adult education corresponds to the nine-year compulsory basic school. This education is intended to provide a basis for the community participation, vocational activity and further study. The level at which studies begin depends on the initial qualifications of each individual student. Studies are concluded when the individual education targets have been achieved. Students decide their own rate of progress, and in this way studies can be combined with employment or work experiences. Basic education is a right for the individual and is mandatory for the municipalities.

Upper secondary schooling
Adult upper secondary schooling and upper secondary schooling for young persons have the same syllabi and, as from 1994, the same curriculum. Adult education is the equivalent of youth upper secondary school but not identical to it. Municipal adult education is made up of courses, and the courses in the different subjects follow on from each other. The qualifications of the adult students must be adequately supplemented to raise them to the same standard as those of young persons. The courses provided can, however, differ from those in youth upper secondary education as regards emphasis, content and scope. The students themselves decide the number and combinations of subjects to be taken and the rate of progress. Many students take only one or two courses. Those completing full programme can obtain a three-year upper secondary school leaving certificate.

Adult education for intellectually handicapped (särvux)
Adult education for intellectually handicapped is a type of school in its own right which can provide further training in an occupation or training for a completely new occupation. Most of these programmes take between six months and a year to complete and focus for example on economics, information processing and tourism.

Swedish for immigrants (svenska för invandrare)
The municipalities are obliged to provide basic Swedish language tuition for immigrants, for an average of 525 hours. The Swedish tuition aims to providing adult immigrants with basic knowledge and proficiency in the Swedish language as well as knowledge about the Swedish society.

National distance adult education (Statens skola för vuxna)
As supplement to municipal adult education there are two national schools for adults. Instruction in these schools is partly or entirely distance learning. Participants are recruited from all over the country and the schools cater for students who for various reasons are unable to attend courses within municipal adult education.

The Adult Education Initiative
The Adult Education Initiative "kunskapslyftet" is a five year programme for adult education etsblished on July 1^st 1997. It is part of the Government’s strategy to reduce unemployment. Through the joint efforts of central and local government a comprehensive national expansion is being brought about aiming at providing those with lower levels of education knowledge equivalent to the core subjects at upper secondary school. At its full extent the project encompasses 100,000 places in addition to regular municipal adult education and costs SEK 3.3 billion per year. The aim to achieve more equitable income distribution and to promote economic growth by means of raising educational levels and the skills of the work force. The initiative is also designed to develop and upgrade adult education and training in terms of both content and forms of instruction.

Pilot Scheme for Qualified Vocational Education (kvalificerad yrkesutbildning)
Since autumn 1996 pilot projects have been carried out in qualified vocational education, a new form of post secondary education in which one-third of the time is based on application of theoretical knowledge at a workplace. What this involves is not the traditional traineeship period, but active work-place learning and problem-solving in an overall educational context. The courses are based on close co-operation between enterprise and various course providers (upper secondary school, municipal adult education, higher education, companies). The aim is to satisfy the needs of the labour market for skilled labour with appropriate competence in the production of goods and services using modern technologies. The courses are open to those coming directly from upper secondary school and to people who are already gainfully employed and wish to develop their skills within a defined area.

Other forms of adult education

Popular Adult Education
Sweden has a long history of a popularly-based system of decentralised education and course activities (folkbildning). Study associations and some 150 Folk High Schools work with these activities in close co-operation with a variety of Non Governmental Organisations.

Popular education is available to everyone and aims at reaching groups who often remain outside other educational systems: those who only have elementary education, the disabled, immigrants and the unemployed. The goal is to reduce the education gaps among people and to reinforce democracy by stimulating the individual citizen’s participation in society.

Folk high schools, mainly residential, provide both long-term and short-term cycle courses. Some courses can qualify students for university studies. Tuition is free of charge but the students pay for their own board and lodging. State assistance can be payable.

The Study Associations’ activities consists above all of study circles, but the associations are also able to organise studies corresponding to those offered by the school system and within higher education.

Labour market training
Labour market training is an instrument of labour market policy primarily intended as basic vocational education or further training for the unemployed. Labour market training consits of specially procured labour market training and of labour market training provided within the regular education system. County labour boards or employment offices purchase various training packages from, for example municipal adult education, commercial training companies or the Employment Group (AMU).

There is no formal system for recognition of further skills and competencies aquired by unemployed in government- funded training programmes. Normally the person having undergone labour market training receives a document describing what is included in the training. Within the regular education system certificates are issued.

On-the job training and Competence development
Many workplaces have extensive programmes for employees at all levels. In-house training of this kind may involve anything from practical vocational training to extensive theoretical studies. In addition to this there are the various more or less unorganised forms of training, through e.g. supervision, job rotation, instruction and study visits.

A survey shows that approximately 70 per cent of on-the-job training is carried out within individual companies. The second category of personnel education is suppliers organizing education in connection to delivery of equipment. Companies and public employers also purchase education from the public education system or from private organizers, e.g. the universities and colleges, municipal adult education, the Employment Group or various commercial training companies.

In-company training does sometimes result in a diploma or course certificate. In general, however, diplomas are not widely used outside the public educational system.

Statistics

Municipal adult education, "komvux"
In autumn 1998 there were around 238,000 students in municipal adult education. The majority of those, 200,000, took part in upper secondary studies. 32,000 were enrolled in basic adult education and 6,000 in supplementary education. The average number of courses per student was 4.2.

The most common courses were upper secondary computer studies (91,300 participants), upper secondary mathematics (41,300 participants) and upper secondary English (40,600 participants).

Around two thirds of the students were women and slightly less than a quarter were of foreign origin. The proportion of students of foreign origin was greatest on the basic programme where it was nearly two thirds.

In 1998-99, the number of teachers (as full-time members of staff) was 8,800 and the number of schools were nearly 500.

Data are from 1998, the source is the National Agency for Education, report 167 "Child Care and School Statistics 1999:2"

National schools for adults, SSV
In autumn 1998 there were 8,500 participants. Almost all of them studied at upper secondary level. Nearly two thirds of the students were women. The number of teachers (as full-time members of staff) was 45.

Data are from 1998, the source is the National Agency for Education, report 167 "Child Care and School Statistics 1999:2"

 Swedish for immigrants, Sfi
In autumn 1998 there were 20,500 participants in Swedish for immigrants. Nearly half of those were refugees or asylum-seekers. The rest were other immigrants. Nearly two thirds of the pupils were women. The number of teachers (as full-time members of staff) was 1,100.

Data are from 1998, the source is the National Agency for Education, report 167 "Child Care and School Statistics 1999:2"

Municipal education for adults with learning disabilities, "särvux"
There were 4,100 students in "särvux" in autumn 1998. Nearly half of these studied at special compulsory level, 1,500 at training school (for the severely mentally handicapped) and the rest at special upper secondary level.

The number of teachers (as full-time members of staff) was 200. The average number of pupils per group was 2.2 and pupils had an average of 2.2 pupil-hours per week. Nearly half of the pupils were women. The median age for pupils was 34 years.

Data are from 1998, the source is the National Agency for Education, report 167 "Child Care and School Statistics 1999:2"

Pilot Scheme for Qualified Vocational Education (QVE)
As from the Autumn 1999 there will be 12,000 students in QVE in 270 different cources. Three quarters of the students participate in cources of two years duration.

Slightly more than half (53%) of the students are 24 years old or younger. 15% of the students are 35 years old or older. A little less than half of the students are women.

Folk high schools
There were 147 folk high schools in Sweden in 1998, out of which 48 were owned by municipalities or county councils. The remaining 99 folk high schools were run by various popular movements, organisations and supporting bodies.

Approximately 108,500 people attended folk high schools each semester in 1998. Over 100,000 were involved in cultural programmes. Nearly 60 per cent of the students were women.

Adult education associations
There are eleven adult education associations receiving funding from the state’s popular adult education appropriation.

In 1998, the number of study circles was approximately 332,000 and the number of participants are estimated at between 1.5 and 2 million individuals (more than 2.8 million if each individual circle is included). Nearly 60 per cent of the students were women. In addition, 185,000 cultural programs were arranged.

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