Response to interpellation 2023/24:555 on resources for the country's learning centers
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns resources for the country's learning centers and the education system. L argues that Sweden has a system that provides several opportunities for education 1 2. L believes that the government is expanding education through more places at the university college (yrkeshögskolan) and regional adult education (komvux) 1, and that the university college should be expanded with 40,000 places to solve the skills shortage 2. L argues that learning centers are an important part of the whole and that the government invests 50 million kronor annually in them 3 2. S believes that the government's policy is counterproductive as the state grant to learning centers has returned to the original level despite a worsened labor market 4. S emphasizes the importance of learning centers for studies far from educational institutions 4 5. S argues that municipalities have a heavy economic burden and that previous Social Democratic governments expanded the opportunity to study throughout the country 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Niklas Sigvardsson has asked me why the government has chosen to prioritize reducing support to the country's learning centers, what I intend to do so that there will also be the possibility of learning centers throughout the country in the future, and what I intend to do to develop the possibility of studying throughout the country via learning centers.
In the ordinance (2017:1303) on state grants for learning centers, "learning center" refers to an activity organized by one or more municipalities where the student is offered support in their learning from teachers and other staff, as well as given the opportunity to meet other students. Learning centers can be available for studies within municipal adult education, vocational higher education, university and college, or other forms of education. The purpose of the state grant is to stimulate the development of learning centers in the municipalities.
Government grants may be granted to municipalities that, in cooperation with other municipalities, carry out measures for the establishment of new or development of existing learning centers. Government grants may also be granted to municipalities that carry out these measures without cooperation with others if there are special reasons.
Skolverket distributes the funds, and the authority shall, in its distribution of the state grant, take into account, among other things, the extent to which the measures can promote access to and throughput in the education, the need for geographical distribution of learning centers, and whether consultation with the regional development responsible actor has taken place.
The state contributes 50 million kronor annually to the activities at learning centers across Sweden. The deteriorating labor market during the covid-19 pandemic created an extra large need for education and retraining throughout the country. At that time, the state grant was temporarily increased, but since then it has returned to the original level.
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! All around our country, studies are made possible for thousands of residents in places far from established educational institutions and residential areas. Much of this fantastic work is done at one of the country's many learning centers. A learning center is a fantastic melting pot of people studying at different levels and with different goals, ranging from the newly arrived who may be learning the language and a profession simultaneously via vocational adult education, to the one who has worked as a healthcare assistant for many years and perhaps needs to study something to be able to continue studying in the nursing program, which can even take place at the same location, or someone who has developed a great interest in technology and wants to retrain as a 3D printing technician by studying a vocational college program. It is something fantastic about the learning center's possibilities to provide access to a wide range of courses, programs, and educations with several different educational providers and educational forms in one and the same place, where people with little experience of academic studies get to meet those who have extensive experience. It is a fantastic environment that more people should get the chance to utilize.
That is why the government's policy is counterproductive. Mats Persson's answer to the interpellation here today unfortunately says everything about the government's lack of education policy for the many.
Mats Persson often stands here in debates with me regarding education policy and says that it refers to doped pandemic figures when I present measures and investments. It is levels that do not belong to the normal, he believes. But it is levels that we Social Democrats have fully stood up for budget after budget during this parliamentary term. It is about people's opportunities for transition. It is about people's opportunities to grow and change within their professions.
That is why one thing Mats Persson said in the interpellation response makes me a little extra distressed: "The worsened labor market during the covid-19 pandemic created an extra large need for education and retraining across the entire country. At that time, the state grant was temporarily increased, but after that, it has returned to the original level." It is very easy to say, but then one needs to consider that tens of thousands more are now unemployed due to the wave of bankruptcies that has washed over the country during the past year. The bankruptcies are at a level that we have not seen since the 90s crisis.
What one can say is that this is a fantastic reform, that we need to be proactive and that we need to continue to have high levels. But instead, one comes forward with that these were doped levels that belonged to the pandemic and that one cannot stand up for in the current situation. It is a defensive attitude that unfortunately shows both a poor education policy and a poor labor market policy.
I want the Minister for Education to answer a question in his next contribution that I asked in the interpellation but which I do not consider it possible to find any answer to in his interpellation response: What does the Minister intend to do to develop the possibility of studying throughout the country via learning centers?
Gunilla Svantorp (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer. One of the issues that I am truly passionate about is the right to education, including higher education, regardless of where in the country one lives. Now I really want to take the opportunity to discuss this with the Minister for Education.
Learning centers are important precisely to ensure that regardless of where in the country one lives, there is an opportunity to pursue higher education. For several years, we have had a very important project, Nya vägar, which has received a lot of state funding from various agencies to deeply study different aspects of decentralized education. If the Minister for Education has not familiarized themselves with that project, it is a tip to do so. There, one can also see the challenges that exist. Of 290 municipalities, there are 251 – those are 2018 figures, and I could imagine that there are more today – that have a lower proportion of highly educated people than the average. That should make the Minister for Education want to do something about this, because those figures are really not good. And the differences are increasing.
SCB has a statistical database, as it is called, where one can see that the population's education level was raised between the years 1990 and 2016 and that it is linked to the establishment of educational institutions. One must truly thank the social democratic governments that have ensured the expansion of higher education throughout the country. One can also see, however, that the higher education level remains within approximately one hour's travel distance from the various colleges and universities. That is not enough, therefore. Further steps must be taken to reach the whole country.
In 2019, UKÄ commented for the first time in its report on young people's transition to higher education that geography is a factor that affects the choices young people make. TCO has developed an education index which also shows that there are large differences. What is important when obtaining a higher education is precisely how far one has to commute.
We have some colleges and universities that have gone ahead in this work and which have truly taken on the desire to decentralize. These include, among others, Högskolan Väst and Linnéuniversitetet. But we also have two universities that have had the state's mandate to ensure the decentralization of education. These are Umeå universitet and Luleå universitet.
The Parliamentary Rural Committee was formed a few years ago. It also had two wise proposals. Among other things, it thought that more education centers for higher education should be established. Another important matter was that the universities need to be tasked with increasing access to higher education throughout the country.
Niklas Sigvardsson has meritably asked the Minister for Education about exactly this. It is also my question. How does the Minister for Education want to work to reduce the gaps that exist between the municipalities in our country and between the opportunities to obtain qualified labor? Very many occupations today require such.
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Thanks to the interpellor for an important and excellent question!
It is important that we have an education system that gives people the opportunity to have multiple chances. It is a matter of people not just getting one but several chances to have access to education. It is important that we have an education system that has several paths into the education system so that people can, in different ways, acquire an education and in that way get a job that is good for their future. It is also important that there is education throughout our entire country.
Mr. Speaker! What the government is doing right now is that we are expanding education very significantly. It is very important that we have vocational training in our entire country. It is important that we have more places at the university college and within the framework of the regional adult education activities and regional vocational adult education, because it means that more people get the opportunity to attend an education. That is also why the government in the latest budget is injecting money so that an expansion of tens of thousands of places now takes place. It means that people now get the opportunity to train for professions within welfare, within the green transition, or within industry as a whole.
The labor market is crying out for competent people who have the skills that the labor market needs. The government is now doing something about it.
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! I do not fully share the picture that the Minister for Education presents here regarding the major investments the government is making to expand education in the country, and above all not when it comes to expanding education in places that are far away from higher education institutions.
That is what the debate is about. Lärcentrum has the fine finesse of making education available far from educational institutions but instead close to people who really need to be able to transition in order to be able to take the new jobs that the Minister for Education so profitably speaks about in the green transition and the like.
It is then that we need learning centers to enable studying for 3D printing technicians or transitioning to different technical occupations that the green transition is crying out for.
A few months ago, I visited an organization called Nitus. It is a network for municipal learning centers. They presented how their activities have looked over the past year and what they need for the future. Unfortunately, they showed that there is a double blow against the municipal learning centers right now. Education is not being expanded at the rate they would need.
We see that. The Social Democratic budget contains 2 billion more targeted solely at adult educations in various forms compared to the government's policy. We also propose general state grants targeted towards the purely municipal sector at 7 billion more than what is in the government's budget.
The municipal learning centers are currently feeling the heavy economic burden that municipalities are subjected to. This applies especially to municipalities that are far away from various educational institutions. They have to choose to prioritize preschool, primary school, and elderly care. Can the elderly home be kept open? Can the preschool be kept open? This is weighed against adult education and learning centers. The advocates for the learning centers feel that, unfortunately, the money is not going to what can enable people to transition to jobs and get jobs. That is not the signal the government is sending to the municipalities. There is an incredible amount to be done there.
The municipal networks are also becoming fewer. The municipal learning centers are no longer increasing in number but are declining slightly because there is no feeling that there is the means to contribute to development. There is no means to build up cooperation with universities of applied sciences or cooperation with colleges and universities.
It goes completely against the line that the Minister for Education previously stood here and spoke about. Then we do not get a more educated population that has the opportunity to take the jobs that exist and the educated people that the business sector and the public sector are crying out for all around our country.
That is what it is about. It is about people being able to educate themselves all around our country. It is important that the previous Social Democratic governments have expanded the opportunity to study all around our country far from the established seats of learning.
I still lack an answer from the Minister for Education regarding what steps the government is taking when it comes to learning centers as a form. Mats Persson spoke very much about other things. I give Mats Persson another chance to speak specifically about learning centers.
What does the government and the Minister for Education intend to do to develop the possibility of studying throughout the country?
Gunilla Svantorp (S)
Mr. Speaker! The Minister says that he wants to provide more opportunities to study. In that case, it is a very good idea to ensure that education is available in more places.
A few years ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Scotland together with Campus Västervik to see their fantastic structure. We visited the University of the Highlands and Islands. It has 13 local campuses and some seventy learning centers. They have a vision: that no one in Scotland should be more than three miles away from 30 different higher education programs. There, you can talk about political will!
It is a university that became a university in 2011. We had to travel from a larger town in Scotland for two and a half hours out into the countryside and arrived at a local campus and opened the door. It was like entering any research at Karolinska.
I asked: How can you have such research here out in the middle of nowhere? They said: Where else would we be? We research the ocean. The ocean is here outside us. They also have fantastic quality results.
Another example exists in Norway. There, the Minister of Higher Education and Research has just decided on basic funding for 16 study and college centers with the aim of increasing decentralized education.
The Minister himself says approximately what our minister just said. The labor market is screaming for competence, and then we must offer education where people live. He also says that it must be a safe and solid operation over time.
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Mr. Speaker! I think it is a strength in Sweden that we have the opportunity to educate ourselves at advanced ages. We have the opportunity to get several chances, and we have the opportunity to change careers in the middle of life. I think it is a great strength for Sweden as a knowledge nation.
I also think it is a strength that we have education throughout our entire country and that we have a flora of many different types of education. The learning center is one model, but there is also much else. We have the university college and our folk high schools, which create several paths into a profession and into an education where one can realize oneself and fulfill one's dreams.
In the coming years, the vocational college will be expanded with 40,000 more places across our country. This will solve both the welfare sector's and the business sector's shortage of competence. These are important investments to ensure that more people get the opportunity to receive an education. In that way, we can also address the deficiencies we see on the labor market.
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! Initially, I want us to note that I do not think the Minister for Education has answered the question of how they want to develop the country's learning centers. The Minister for Education talks a lot about other forms of education, which very rightly must also have some recipient. There, all the country's learning centers can be a fantastic opportunity for a vocational college education, a college education, or a komvux education. But we are talking about learning centers, and I do not think the Minister mentions them sufficiently in the debate.
It is about people all over our country having the opportunity to study near their place of residence. In my home county, Jönköpings län, we have learning centers in several different locations, and I will mention two in particular: Vetlanda and Värnamo.
Campus Värnamo has built up a fantastic operation in a town located near the entire Gnosjö spirit's technology hub, where small and medium-sized companies are currently crying out for adaptable labor in order to take the step into the orders of the future and the jobs of the future.
Vetlanda is located right in the middle of the area with the timber house industry that is currently facing an extreme blow with bankruptcy after bankruptcy. The learning center is now building up opportunities there to retrain the people who become unemployed. They do this thanks to the fact that they are located locally and have well-established contacts with municipalities and companies. When people become unemployed, the local learning centers can truly work with those people who now need a chance to retrain and be able to take the jobs when the economy turns around.
In conclusion, I want to make a point about this: Let us talk about learning centers! Let us talk about the important opportunity they represent to educate people in our entire country!
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Mr. Speaker! I will initially give Niklas Sigvardsson the right that I am speaking a bit more broadly about education, about the opportunity for people to transition in the middle of life and about the opportunity for people to grow and achieve their full potential as individuals with the help of education. This is, not least, about being able to get a job and contributing to solving the common societal problems we have.
I admit that I am speaking a bit more broadly than specifically about a form of education. I am speaking about the whole, where the learning center is, of course, an important part. It is also why the government invests 50 million kronor every year in this form of education. It fulfills an important function, but it is part of a whole that we are now expanding significantly. We provide skills for Sweden so that more people can receive an education and a job. At the same time, we can meet the need for labor, and in fact, the employers are screaming for labor in Sweden 2024.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.