Response to interpellation 2022/23:31 on labor market training for shortage occupations
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns labor market training for shortage occupations. L believes that upper secondary and adult education is the backbone of skills supply and that legislative changes improve the conditions for regular education 1. L argues that Arbetsförmedlingen should take local needs into account 1 2, that tax money should be used effectively 3 and that they have succeeded in shortening the time to the first job 4. L also believes that it is welcome to set tough requirements on healthy adults who receive maintenance support 4. S argues that it is serious that training places for bus and truck drivers are being removed 5, that there may be a system error in the matching 6 and wishes for more training places for new Swedes 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Madam Speaker! Gunilla Svantorp has asked me what measures I intend to take to secure the need for trained personnel who ensure that our infrastructure in all of Sweden functions.
Infrastructure is a very white and broad concept, but here I am proceeding from the assumption that we are primarily speaking about the transport industry. It is certainly true that well-functioning transport is crucial for the entire country to be able to live. For the transport companies to be able to provide their important, often socially vital, transport, it is central that they can recruit trained personnel with very good competence.
Competence supply often involves an interaction between different parties, and so does it here. Upper secondary and adult education form the backbone when it comes to the training of the workforce in Sweden. The legislative changes that enter into force at the mid-year turn next year as a result of the work on a dimensioning of upper secondary education for better competence supply improve – it is my absolute assessment – the conditions to further strengthen the importance of regular education in this matter. It is therefore a matter of making more efforts to ensure that young people are given good conditions to educate themselves for professions and competencies where there are actually jobs, which is a basis for the interpellation itself.
The labor market training is a complement to regular education and contributes to the skills supply within the transport industry in every way. In establishing the labor market training, Arbetsförmedlingen shall have a national perspective but also take into account the local training supply and the local and regional labor market.
As I mentioned just now, upper secondary and adult education are important for the skills supply within the transport sector specifically. The vehicle and transport program in upper secondary school has increased in scope over time and is today the third largest vocational program in the Swedish upper secondary school.
To increase the attractiveness of a certain industry or a certain profession, it is important that there is education, so that there are not too long queues, that there is a work environment that is reasonable, that there is a salary that is considered attractive, and that there are other aspects that affect the conditions for further education and other things.
Ensuring the supply of competence within the transport industry is a shared responsibility for all involved actors, but of course also from the government's side and for Arbetsförmedlingen, which is the agency that we are trying to develop and steer to achieve this goal.
Gunilla Svantorp (S)
Madam Speaker! I would like to thank you very much for the answer, even though I actually find a good deal missing from it. First, I would like to say welcome to the assignment as Minister for Employment and Integration.
I submitted this interpellation because Arbetsförmedlingen has chosen not to continue with training for bus and truck drivers in certain places in our country. I think this is serious given that bus drivers are a shortage occupation; we see that the need will be very great. It is one of the key jobs needed so that all of us others can get to work, to friends and relatives and so on.
On the Arbetsförmedlingen website, there is a tab called "Here are the jobs to invest in now and in five years." There, both bus and tram drivers, as well as truck drivers, are mentioned as professions that are important to invest in, both now and in five years.
Another thing that is on the Arbetsförmedlingen's website is: "Everything indicates that education is becoming an increasingly important factor in getting a job." And we know that it is so. Education is a factor that actually makes one get a job.
The bus industry expects that next year there will be a shortage of at least 4,000 bus drivers in our country.
We are heading into a recession, if we are not already there. We have a war in our vicinity. Many feel an anxiety. Will I be affected? Will my loved ones be affected? Will I be able to pay rent, food, and so on?
We have, as the minister said in an interpellation debate earlier, very many who are unemployed, over 300,000. But we also have a skills shortage in many industries, including the industry I am talking about. Education means that one gets an own income and a freedom in one's life.
The transport industry accounts for 4 percent of Sweden's GDP. It is therefore a large industry; it employs a total of 300,000 people. A standard B-driver's license is often a gateway to jobs. The problem is that so few are taking out driver's licenses today. And the problem is even greater when it comes to C- and D-licenses, i.e., for heavy traffic. There, it has decreased by 50 percent over the last 20 years.
The Minister just said in his answer that upper secondary and adult education constitute the backbone when it comes to labor force training, and I truly agree with that. But labor market training is a very important complement. If one now thinks that education is important, especially training for shortage occupations, why are training places being removed, as you do in your budget? You are removing places in both labor market training and adult education. And why does the Minister not question that training for shortage occupations is being cancelled?
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Madam Speaker! The Riksdag governs the government, and the government in turn governs our authorities. That is the detail that is a bit tricky. When Arbetsförmedlingen a couple of months ago decided not to extend the labor market training for bus professional drivers in eleven locations - Umeå, Sundsvall, Falun, my own hometown Örebro, Uddevalla, Skövde, Falkenberg, Linköping, Jönköping, Karlskrona and Kristianstad - it was also decided that it would be extended in Luleå, Östersund, Gävle, Karlstad, Uppsala, Eskilstuna, Nyköping, Stockholm, Göteborg, Växjö, Helsingborg and Malmö.
I have checked with the authority, which monitors this and has a mandate to create jobs and ensure matching and equipping, and their message is that the reason for this decision is that the demand for these educations is too small. We can regret that. Then we must ensure that both the parties and the upper secondary schools do their part and that one, as we just spoke about, in different ways tries to equip even more people who may stand very far from the labor market and cannot directly jump into a vocational education to become a bus driver tomorrow. This must be met so that the need increases. This is the reason that has been stated.
I agree that this is very central. We can move forward on other areas in society as well. We can talk about machine operators in another interpellation debate. It is the same thing there – an industry and a sector that is literally screaming for young people, like those of you sitting in the stands, who need to enter the labor market. There are plenty of jobs there, but it is difficult to get applicants for these types of jobs.
Then it is clear that we must consider what we can do together. As mentioned, there are 300,000 unemployed, but it is over 534,000 who are registered at Arbetsförmedlingen. We therefore have an enormous resource and reserve, if one looks at it positively, that must come in and be spared the pain of being unemployed, lacking self-determination and not being able to feel pride in earning their own money.
All this is a huge task, and we are now looking broadly at how we can strengthen the close-proximity education, especially at the upper secondary level, which we were touching upon. There, Gunilla Svantorp herself, not least in her previous assignment, has contributed actively to the fact that we can now transition and obtain a secondary school that is better adapted for this; I welcome that. We must also work so that Arbetsförmedlingen, when there is a great interest and a local need, ensures that people receive labor market training for occupations where there is a shortage.
There are basically three ways in. In addition to upper secondary school, it is also possible via either the municipal adult education or the labor market training. One should therefore not forget the municipal adult education. Then there are a few who obtain a vocational competence certificate in other ways, via private driving schools and so on, but generally, the municipal adult education is also very important.
Wherever there is a demand, the necessary labor market trainings are provided. They have been discontinued in these cases because there was a lack of interest, but they exist in many places.
Gunilla Svantorp (S)
Madam Speaker! I think it sounds very strange that there would not be an interest in such large towns as the Minister enumerated, such as Umeå, Sundsvall, Falun, Örebro, Västerås and Växjö. It is very strange - I really think the Minister should dig into it a bit. There are unemployed people. How does one actually work with matching the unemployed to the right education? It could be some system error.
Infrastructure is incredibly important for the entire country - and when I speak about infrastructure, I mean exactly as the Minister said, the transport policy - both for regional development and of course also for the jobs and so that we can all get to our jobs. We have a transport policy goal, which not only we in the Transport Committee but the entire Riksdag stand behind, namely that we shall ensure a socio-economically efficient and long-term sustainable transport supply throughout the country. In that regard, those who are to operate our various means of transport are particularly important.
We know that if the infrastructure does not work, we have to stay at home. We saw what happened during the pandemic. At that time, the infrastructure and transport worked, but because of the risk of infection, we were not allowed to go anywhere. But those who worked during that time were many times those who drove buses, the subway, or trains.
On Transportföretagens website, there is a report from IRU, which is a global organization within the transport sector. They have more than 3.5 million member organizations in 100 different countries. They show in the report that there is already an enormous shortage of professional drivers within various types of transport. They also show that 30 percent of Europe's drivers will be retired within four years, until 2026.
During 2021, there were 437,000 vacant driver jobs that were not filled, probably because there were other jobs or because people could not be reached, which leads to higher costs, deteriorated transport, and poorer competitiveness for the entire part of the world that we live in.
We have today in the transport committee heard from an organization that four out of ten bus drivers in Sweden are over 60 years old, so we know that many will be retiring. It is very few today who become bus drivers after regular upper secondary education. That is why the labor market trainings are so incredibly important.
I have understood that the two latest procurements have failed, partly because a procurement was made for the entire country, which is completely incomprehensible. It looks very different across the country, and the entire country cannot be covered by similar conditions.
A question that I want to end this contribution with – I know I have one more contribution – is how the Minister intends to ensure that the procurements are carried out in a proper way. What directives will be issued given that it does not look the same across the entire country? One reason why people who apply are not being recruited can also be that the procurements are not being done in the right way.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Madam Speaker! The last thing Gunilla Svantorp mentioned is incredibly central, that the procurements are correct and that Arbetsförmedlingen is on its toes. There is no other opinion. That is what Gunilla Svantorp thinks, that is what I think, that is what the Speaker thinks and that is what reasonably everyone I have ever met thinks.
The Swedish National Audit Office has repeatedly audited Arbetsförmedlingen in that regard and reached a considerable amount of criticism. I take that, of course, most seriously. We on the political side are now going through the audits and exactly what has been addressed and what has not been addressed, for example, to rectify things that are thought to be less effective. We are still talking about these billions and billions of tax dollars that we invest to help people, help industries, and make Sweden function, which is very important. We want to use them in the most effective way to, for example, achieve more efficiency in the procurements, as Gunilla Svantorp calls for.
It is clear that the pandemic has affected this. I receive information about it from the industry. I receive a lot of complaints, not only from people who have been long-term unemployed but also from those who want to hire new employees. The industry in Sweden has a need for 60 percent more trained bus drivers. The shortage risks growing with the age structure when it comes to many skilled bus drivers.
We must know that there are still over 111,000 people with a B-license qualification but only around 23,000 active bus drivers. There is an appeal on the theme: Come back, work full-time, work part-time or half-time! There is a resource here that can be utilized. I must also bring this up in the conversations I have with the industry, because as Minister for Employment, I am a kind of broker between needs and people who are currently not getting employed or can support themselves.
If we look more broadly at the need for professional drivers and transport when it comes to our trucks, which ensure that we get out medical supplies, food, and everything else that we need to have for Sweden to function, there are 247,000 people who have a C-license but only 55,000 active drivers. There is also an enormous opportunity in that part of the transport sector to see what can be done. Then it should be emphasized that some have this license to be able to drive horse transports or motorhomes, and it is probably not possible for everyone to work a little extra or change careers.
I think it is important that we see the breadth of this. We have now received information that the procurements may need to be sharpened, and I am glad that the Riksdag and all committees are on the authorities regarding this. In addition to allocating funds and enacting laws following the Riksdag's decision, we have the opportunity to steer the authorities through regulatory letters and instructions. But it is very difficult to say exactly which trainings I would like to have here and there. The foundation prevents me from doing so, but I am glad that the members of the Riksdag can point with the whole hand.
Gunilla Svantorp (S)
Madam Speaker! The Minister is not only the Minister for Employment but also the Minister for Integration. We know that among the over 300,000 unemployed, there are very many of our new Swedes who have not lived in the country for very long.
In today's DN, just before I came here, I read an interview with, among others, the Minister, who says that the bourgeois government will pursue a work-oriented policy that makes more people self-sufficient. That is very good. I truly hope that it means that many of our new Swedes will be given the chance to educate themselves. In that case, both adult education, which admittedly is not the Minister's area, and labor market training are important for those who come to the country and bring an education with them and perhaps only need to transition and learn a little Swedish.
When visiting workplaces, regardless of where they are, one receives a recurring answer when asking what the biggest challenge is, and it is the supply of skills. Regardless of which industry it concerns, the answer is the supply of skills. There, I believe that the labor market trainings are the trainings that, with rapid means, could really be converted and be an important factor.
I really hope that we avoid seeing more cuts in labor market policy measures, because they are truly needed all the time. Instead, we would need investments so that we can see more examples like the one from Filipstad, where an intensive bus training was combined with Swedish. It is very interesting and can be seen on SVT Play what happened with those, especially women, who participated in the training. They talk about how difficult it was to learn to reverse a bus – I can very well imagine that it is – but how important it was, because they received their own salary and their own livelihood.
I wish the Minister good luck and look forward to more money for labor market training in the upcoming budget.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Madam Speaker! I thank you for a good debate. I immediately received suggestions for important visits that I can make myself to see successful initiatives at close range. It is clear that it is being done in many places. We have fantastic people, not least those who work with labor market training, who broker people to their own better future. One also creates increased growth power in Sweden in those companies, organizations or associations that need this workforce.
Of course, there is a great focus on exclusion. I am glad that after ten years, we have nevertheless managed to reduce the time it takes for people to get their first job. It is still far too long for people who may have come from far away in the world to Sweden, but where it then has not turned out so well, because one does not get a job despite strong initiative and ability.
There we must ourselves look at what we can improve. The Government has made a request and is following up on the requests that were made by the previous government to see why it is not going faster to reduce long-term unemployment.
I would like to refer to the interview in DN that Gunilla Svantorp read out. It was both I and a Social Democrat, vice chairman of the Committee on Employment, and a colleague of yours, who made statements. She was very clear that one must set tough demands on people. If one is an adult, healthy, and receives social assistance, it will now be required from the Social Democrats that one provides a counter-performance. That is welcome, I think, because here it is about helping, facilitating, and supporting, but also being clear that demands are placed on adult, healthy people.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.