(cont. from § 13) Adult education (cont. UbU9)

Daniel Riazat (V)

Madam Speaker, members and observers! We are here to debate adult education. It is a subject that I believe we need to spend significantly more time discussing. In a time where large cuts are taking place, where we know there is a lack of a policy for an equal and fair competence supply, and where we know that people are struggling in the municipalities and regions and among entrepreneurs to be able to have employees with the right competence in the green transition and in the pace of innovation that we want Sweden to have, we need to talk much more about adult education.

For many people, adult education has meant a second chance when previous forms of schooling have not been as successful. For others, it has been about wanting to change careers.

After completing primary and secondary school, people should have sufficient knowledge for social and working life. We in Vänsterpartiet see this knowledge as a right. But not all adults have this knowledge and have not been granted access to this knowledge. They should then be able to have these met within adult education.

In line with the changes in the labor market, it is becoming a growing problem that many young people have not completed upper secondary school. In this context, adult education plays a major role. The same applies to both komvux and various types of vocational higher education programs.

There is today a large group of young adults who are poorly equipped for the working life and risk finding it difficult to get or to keep a job. Special measures within adult education and labor market policy are needed to improve their opportunities and facilitate the future supply of skills.

Studying as an adult is also somewhat different than studying as a child or as a young adult. Studies often need to be able to be combined with parenthood and sometimes also with work. Therefore, it is important with a flexible design of the studies with possibilities for, for example, distance studies, evening studies or studies at different paces.

Adult education needs to take into account the students' different needs for support and their different educational backgrounds to a greater extent than today. This can involve study guidance in the mother tongue, study motivation courses, and individual planning.

Adult education, however, does not need one thing, and that is more private providers within this sector. We know that many private actors today conduct adult education with very low quality and at the expense of the staff and those who study there, and with limited opportunities for the responsible principal to have control over the quality. The consequence is that the municipalities lose democratic control over yet another part of the welfare system.

Today's system also risks giving the municipalities incentives to procure the training at the lowest possible cost with the hope that many will get access to education. The risk is that tax money is instead wasted on courses that do not meet a sufficiently high quality from greedy capitalists who are not there to help the municipalities in any way but to make money. Instead, we argue that the municipalities should be given the conditions to offer education both in classrooms and remotely in their own administration, because we know that gives the best result.

Vocational training for adults must also be developed in terms of both scope and quality. There is a need for flexible forms of education, as I mentioned earlier, partly to meet the realities that adults face when they are to study, and partly to meet temporary or local needs for training. Furthermore, there must be opportunities to train in traditional craft professions, which we in Vänsterpartiet believe is very important.

Members of the Committee! By shaping vocational training together with the relevant industries, we create a higher quality. And in a time where we, as I mentioned earlier, need to transition our society, this is more important than ever. Therefore, I must agree with the Social Democrat in a previous speech regarding the issue of industry-based training. This does not only apply when it comes to upper secondary school, but it is by all means important when it comes to adult education. Therefore, it is sad to see a government that totally wants to crush the industry-based training, as it looks today.

I also want to move for approval of reservation 26, so that I do not forget it later in my speech.

I will now move on to another area that is very important for Vänsterpartiet and which reservation 26 specifically concerns.

Skolverket has decided on a revised care and nursing program within the upper secondary school. National vocational packages have been designed with proposals for content in coherent vocational educations that can be provided within komvux and in the upper secondary school's introductory programs. However, the content in the care and nursing educations for adults will still vary between municipalities, as heads of schools can choose whether they want to use these national vocational packages or not. Given the expected increased prevalence of extensive care needs among elderly people receiving municipal care and nursing in combination with increased quality requirements, it is urgent that underskilled nurses' competence is regulated and ensured at a national level. Therefore, we from the Vänsterpartiet side believe that the government should take an initiative to develop all specialist educations for underskilled nurses at the university college level and ensure that these are nationally coherent instead of the system that exists today.

The last topic I intend to touch upon before I conclude concerns Sfi and the right to Sfi.

Meaningful occupation while waiting for a decision on one's future in the form of an asylum decision or whether the mass flight directive shall be developed is, after the material conditions, the most important factor for the health of the group concerned. Vänsterpartiet considers that those who live in an uncertain wait as a result of their flight should be given good conditions for meaningful occupation. It is primarily about learning the language and participating in other educational initiatives.

We heard earlier from the rostrum members from the right and the right-wing nationalist bloc speak about that people must have requirements on them to learn Swedish. We in Vänsterpartiet think it is very strange that parts of the right do not consider that people who have fled according to the mass flight directive should be allowed to study at SFI, for example, or why one does not consider that people should be allowed to attend SFI from day one if they have asylum or refugee status.

Being able to speak the Swedish language is very important for integrating into society. Vänsterpartiet wants to improve the conditions for asylum seekers and those who have fled from war to learn Swedish. We believe that asylum seekers and those who have been granted residence permits according to the mass flight directive should be entitled to study SFI from day one.

When the right-wing parties and the nationalists want to introduce language requirements, we want to provide resources to the municipalities so that they can organize Swedish language training for those who come here. When the right-wing nationalists and the right-wing parties cast suspicion on people who come here in accordance with the mass flight directive or for asylum reasons, we send out the signal that the problem does not lie with these people, but the problem is the policy that the right wing pursues.

We mean therefore that the government must rather return with proposals to give both asylum seekers and those covered by the mass flight directive the right to study SFI from day one. The hypocrisy from the right side must cease in these matters.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! Adult education, but also adult learning, is perhaps one of the clearest indicators of how a country is doing. A healthy society manages to have a system where, as an adult, one gets the chance to make up for lost years of youth and obtain eligibility for higher education or jobs, and where, as an adult, one can change course in life, study something new, change career paths, and follow the development of the labor market. A healthy society gives newcomers good conditions to learn the new country's language and to have their knowledge validated, and there, it gives those with disabilities equal conditions for education and work.

The Centre Party takes its social-liberal starting point in these ambitions for adult education. In an increasingly mobile labor market, adult education does not only benefit the individual but is also a prerequisite for a growing green, sustainable business sector and a skilled public sector.

Sweden is a small open economy. By that, we mean that we are completely dependent on the world around us and that, for our prosperity, we are able to export goods and services with ever-increasing knowledge content - furthermore, in a market that is now rapidly changing shape across the world, partly towards entirely sustainable business, and partly towards being increasingly dominated by digitalization and artificial intelligence. The need for education is enormous, and likewise, the need for transition is enormous.

Centerpartiet pushed through one of the most important reforms of the last decades during the previous parliamentary term. It was a historic reform of the Swedish labor market, where the labor market parties agreed on increased flexibility for employees and companies together with new opportunities for transition during working life.

A fundamental part of the reform was a greater focus on competence. This is important, not least so that companies can find employees with the right competence, retain key personnel, and be able to transition their operations when required. At the same time – and at least as importantly – people get a greater chance for competence development and the opportunity to change paths in life.

Has this become any success? It has hardly escaped anyone what an incredible pressure there is on the Central Student Aid Board, CSN, to handle the enormous interest in the transition study support. People want to transition, change direction and retrain, and at the same time, companies are screaming for competence in all industries. Transition is underway.

The parties in the labor market are, however, not satisfied with how the sitting government is taking over the responsibility. An underfunded CSN is now creating significant problems and causing friction in the transition machinery. PTK, LO and Svenskt Näringsliv wrote a joint debate article on Tuesday, April 25, and stated the following:

"The parties have on several occasions approached the government regarding the problems at CSN. The spring budget does not reassure us. There is a lack of funds for the extra resources CSN needs. - - - It is not sufficient that individuals are left waiting and miss the start of the term."

Centerpartiet takes this into account in its spring budget and considers that the government should have allocated 500 million kronor in the spring amendment budget to the transition study support and the authorities responsible for processing it. For the same reason, the resources for the transition study support and responsible authorities should increase by 500 million kronor in 2024 as well.

Centerpartiet is now pushing to strengthen and expand the possibilities for adult education. We cannot rest on our laurels. As I said initially, the need for development and reforms is great, both to meet the mobility of the labor market and to meet different people's circumstances.

Yrkeshögskolan is a success story where the matching between the companies' needs and the courses that are developed is nearly one hundred percent. At the same time, one seems to operate under short-term circumstances.

Centerpartiet believes that a major vocational higher education boost should be carried out where vocational higher education is strengthened and receives a higher degree of fixed appropriations. Private and public employers should be given the opportunity to co-finance educational places when they see a great need for skills beyond the level that the state has assessed as necessary. More preparatory educations, where shorter supplementary educations can be included, should be financed. More educations at a higher qualification level should also be developed.

The government should therefore investigate the possibilities for short vocational college educations at a higher level in the so-called EQF system in order to strengthen lifelong learning for more people. Ultimately, it is about reviewing and strengthening the vocational college's role as a matching engine for labor market training compared to colleges and universities. I therefore move for approval of reservation 27 under point 14.

Furthermore, we mean what we say. In the Center Party's spring budget, it is proposed that the funds for the university colleges be increased and made permanent to the greatest extent possible. In the government's proposal for the spring amendment budget, the appropriations are instead lowered compared to how they were in 2022.

Centerpartiet believes that access to education should be strengthened through learning centers across the country. Learning centers have an important role for the national, regional and municipal skills supply and increase the opportunities to live, study and work in the whole country.

Centerpartiet wants to strengthen the conditions for persons with intellectual disabilities to study at, for example, universities or colleges. There is currently no unified regulatory framework for post-secondary studies for persons with intellectual disabilities. We want the conditions for an adapted college to be investigated. One part of such an investigation should be to review whether the mission of the vocational colleges can be broadened.

Centerpartiet further considers that deaf citizens should have the same rights and opportunities as other citizens to educate themselves, retrain, or change career paths. The state's responsibility to provide an equal interpretation service within post-secondary education should therefore be investigated.

Finally, the Center Party wants to improve the validation of foreign degrees. There is still no effective and systematic way to inventory what competencies, not least in shortage occupations, are held by newly arrived people. It is important that this knowledge among newly arrived academics and experts is not wasted but identified, and that opportunities are created to be able to use these competencies in productive work as quickly as possible. An improved and streamlined inventory of newly arrived people's competencies is needed, a streamlined validation process, and increased opportunities for supplementing and maintaining a foreign degree.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! Everyone is needed in the Swedish labor market. With high unemployment and industries that cannot find applicants for their positions, all opportunities to change careers or increase one's competence within one's current profession are needed. More people need to find their dream job in small and large companies all over Sweden, in the welfare sector and in the green transition.

Adult education is a fundamental component of lifelong learning. Komvux offers SFI, basic education, and upper secondary education to those who need to strengthen their position on the labor market. Particularly important are the vocational packages that lead to various industry certifications as well as, of course, the vocational schools, which several have already mentioned and which we have debated at previous occasions. The vocational schools must now be closed, because the government will not finance them in the future.

Komvux is also a form of education that opens the door to higher studies for those who want to take that path a bit later. The possibility of validation of existing knowledge is important for those who want to build on solid professional experience from Sweden or other countries with further studies or to move forward in their professional lives.

Miljöpartiet wants to see an education system that provides opportunities for lifelong learning. It needs to be flexible in order to give people opportunities to contribute with the professional skills that are needed now and those that will be needed in the future. What will be required in the future is not exactly clear that we know right now. Therefore, the flexibility and the possibility to change paths are so important.

We want everyone to be given the opportunity to contribute to the transition. The construction of the future's sustainable Sweden will create thousands of jobs. In order for the diversity of skills and experience that many already possess to be managed in the best way, people must be offered the opportunity to further their education and retrain throughout their entire careers. When fossil activities are phased out, the state must create good conditions across the entire country for investments in green industry and green innovations, which through the climate transition provide many new green jobs. These jobs need to be performed by someone.

Madam Speaker! In order for it to truly be possible to transition the whole of Sweden, it must be possible to receive education in the whole of Sweden. Here, learning centers play an important role for the national, regional, and municipal skills supply. They increase the possibilities to live, study, and work in the whole country. Through continued development of learning centers in the whole country, education becomes accessible to more.

Madam Speaker! Miljöpartiet believes that the government should launch a green knowledge boost to facilitate the technology and skills shift that the transition to a sustainable labor market requires. It should be implemented as a labor market policy measure within, among other things, adult education in order to counteract unemployment, facilitate job changes, and provide opportunities for sustainable jobs for young people. But in that case, it is not possible to do as the government does: finance an addition to the university college by removing money from the skills boost for the climate transition. That is anything but a green transition.

Madam Speaker! We in Miljöpartiet want those Ukrainians covered by the mass flight directive who have been granted temporary residence permits to be covered by the same rules as asylum seekers who have been granted residence permits. They shall have the same right to care. They shall also have the right to housing in a municipality and to establishment measures such as establishment allowance, Swedish language instruction through SFI, and help finding work and education. We must make it possible for people to learn Swedish, and it is something that many who come here want to start with as soon as they are here. We need to make it possible for everyone.

Unlike the government, the Green Party wants that people should have a right to SFI. It should not just be something that the municipalities can offer if they want to and, in that case, receive compensation for. Many municipalities have already taken responsibility for offering this, and it is of course good that they now also receive compensation from the government. But what we want, therefore, is that everyone who falls under the mass flight directive shall have the right to learn Swedish. However, it depends somewhat on how one views the whole and the system. The compensation that is now given for offering SFI to Ukrainian refugees is financed by withdrawing money from municipal grants to those municipalities that have received many refugees. That is a bit backward. Then one does not have the systemic thinking that is needed.

Adult education

Madam Speaker! With this, I move for approval of reservation 3 on education for transition and lifelong learning.

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(The decision was to be taken on 27 April.)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)