Response to interpellation 2023/24:582 on the right to student support for studies at a flight academy
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the right to student support for education at the flight academy Green Flight Academy. S considers the education unique through its sustainability focus on electric aviation and that Swedish students should receive student support to avoid traveling abroad 1 2 3. S argues that it is a systemic issue of how new, sustainable educations can be included in the student support system 2 3. L argues that the government is bound by decisions that pilot training shall be conducted within the vocational higher education 4. L considers that the authority for vocational higher education has made the correct assessment as the need is met elsewhere 5 6. L emphasizes that the Riksdag should not overrule the authorities' decisions 5 6 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.
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! Gunilla Svantorp has asked me whether I and the government intend to take the necessary decisions so that a flight academy in Sweden becomes eligible for student aid through CSN via an amendment to the appendix to the Student Aid Ordinance. The question is asked against the background that Green Flight Academy AB operates a pilot training that does not qualify for student aid.
When it comes to education in Sweden, it is generally the government that decides at which educational institutions and programs students can receive student support. The educational institutions and programs are specified in the annex to the Student Support Ordinance (2000:655). The government's scope to add pilot programs is, however, limited. In the bill Vocational College (prop. 2008/09:68), the assessment was made that the publicly funded basic pilot program should be conducted within the vocational college. The Riksdag has shared this assessment (bet. 2008/09:UbU6, rskr. 2008/09:178), which the government is bound by. It also appears from the annex to the Student Support Ordinance that student support may be granted for programs within the vocational college.
Against this background, the Government considers that there is no reason to specifically include pilot training in the appendix to the Student Support Ordinance. The issue of student support may instead be decided within the framework of the regulations for the University College (yrkeshögskolan).
Madam Speaker! The Swedish Council for Higher Vocational Education makes decisions, among other things, on which programs shall be included in the higher vocational education. Higher vocational education programs shall meet the needs of the labor market for professional competence and be conducted in close cooperation with the labor market.
Green Flight Academy AB has during 2023 applied to the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education for, among other things, the training for commercial pilots to be included in the higher vocational education and receive state subsidies. The Agency has rejected the application, among other reasons with the justification that the Agency assesses that the application, in quantitative terms, to a lesser extent meets the labor market's needs for qualified labor. It also follows from the justification that the Agency assesses that there is a sufficient supply of training within the relevant educational direction within the higher vocational education. The Agency has therefore chosen not to prioritize any training within the educational direction in the current application round.
Gunilla Svantorp (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
In February, the transport committee's S-group visited Skellefteå. We have been to the north several times to see what is happening in the important societal transformation there. During our visit, we were at Green Flight Academy and saw an operation that I would like to claim does not exist anywhere else in Sweden. Sweden has other flight training programs, but at this academy, one learns to fly in real winter conditions. There is also a completely different focus on sustainability. It is actually the world's first sustainable flight academy. We truly gained an insight into how it could work with electric aircraft, which are something completely different than ordinary airplanes.
We have a climate act, and we have climate goals that must be achieved. We have also committed ourselves to a lot of national and international commitments regarding that we must transition. Then we must also transition how we do things, in this case how airplanes are propelled.
Yesterday was the Riksdag's research day. It was very interesting, and the theme was AI. One of the researchers who was here spoke a lot about reception competence, i.e., that we must learn what AI is so that we can receive it in the right way. I mean that when it comes to the green transition, it is also important that we learn to receive it in the right way and also have the prerequisites needed to be able to transition. In that case, it is important that we are proactive in our systems. This was actually the reason why I wrote my interpellation after the visit to the flight academy in Skellefteå.
Just as the Minister said, Swedish flight training must today be included in the vocational higher education system to be eligible for student aid or be added by the Government to the appendix to the Student Aid Ordinance. The training in question was, as mentioned, rejected because the authority considered that there are already enough training places. One must, however, ask whether the training places that already exist are equivalent to the training places we are now talking about and how the Minister, in that case, intends to proceed regarding new operations. How long is it reasonable for them to wait before they enter the student aid system?
This education only has students from other countries because Swedish students do not receive student support to attend it. All students must pay a high fee because the education costs a lot of money, and it would be valuable if Swedish students received student support to be able to pursue this education in their own country. Instead, they must now go abroad to obtain this education. Does the Minister think that is reasonable?
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! Initially, I want to say that the green transition is, of course, very important. Here, Sweden is far ahead, and we are one of the few countries that since 1990 has reduced its climate impact. Today, in our society, we have lower carbon emissions than we had in the 90s. Many countries have much to learn from Sweden's climate work, and I feel very proud that Sweden is such a modern welfare state that is far ahead in climate work.
Regarding Gunilla Svantorp's question about the specific education and the specific company, I believe in the principle that the Riksdag should not decide which educations should receive state support or be approved in an application round, but I have full confidence that the responsible authority, in this case the Swedish Council for Higher Vocational Education, has handled the application correctly and made the right assessment and balancing. The authority has the task of developing educations and assessing applications for educations, and here the starting point is primarily the needs of the labor market and the shortage of skills that exists.
When the authority has now justified its decision based on the fact that it is seen that the need is met elsewhere, it means that other educational providers within the framework of this activity have been granted support, and I find it difficult to see that it would be a good arrangement for the Riksdag to review the authority's decision.
Gunilla Svantorp (S)
Madam Speaker! It is not about discussing whether just this specific company should receive student support, it is about the system. What is it that is important, and what does the system look like?
I am somewhat astonished by the interpellation response, where the minister says that the Riksdag has shared the assessment that the publicly funded basic pilot training shall be conducted within the university college and that the government is bound by that.
I truly believe that a government can change almost any decision if one has a majority. We have, more than once, heard representatives from the Tidö government say that they have a majority and that they do not need to care one bit about what the opposition thinks because they can, in principle, do what they want. If one wanted to change this, one would return to the Riksdag with the reason that new educations are now coming that cannot be compared with the educations that exist but which cannot fit into the system. I think it is a serious issue.
The Minister also says that he is happy, grateful and proud that we are far ahead in the transition. One should thank the previous government for that. With the current government, all emissions are skyrocketing. It therefore has absolutely nothing to do with this government. Then the government should really consider what it should do to ensure that we actually transition to a more sustainable future, and then one can look at the possibilities that exist with electric aviation.
I live in the countryside, out in the forest. I see a huge future for electric aviation, but then we also must have people who can handle electric aircraft, who can fly them. It is clear that those who undergo a regular education can also do that, but everyone who has had job tasks that have changed knows that one also must build upon one's competence.
If we now have companies in Sweden that are first in the world in transitioning, it seems very strange that we have students who come from other countries while our own students are forced to go abroad. All of us who live in rural areas know what happens when our youth disappear from our towns. They leave to study, but it is very rarely that they come back home again. That risk is also very great when we see that our pilots, or those who want to become them, travel abroad where they get stuck and do internships in other companies that are stationed abroad.
With the possibility that exists for electric aviation in Sweden, we could have a completely different work commute. Instead of only having flights that go north and south, we could fly shorter distances across our entire country.
I think this would also be a very interesting question for an education minister who constantly says that education is the most important thing. It is the priority for him. But then new education must also be a priority. Then one needs to consider how we can ensure that we retain the competence that we need to have in our country in light of the new transition and new sustainability in our country and ensure that these people do not travel abroad.
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! I thank Gunilla Svantorp for this debate.
I believe we are in complete agreement on the importance of education and the significance of the green transition for Sweden, not least because we are a long and elongated country from Ystad to Haparanda. Those are great distances. We need to have a policy that works both in the city and in the rural areas.
This debate concerns this specific education and this company which has applied to one of our agencies to conduct education. I find it very difficult to see an order where we in the Riksdag overrule the assessments and trade-offs our agencies make in individual cases. Here, the agency has made the assessment that there are also other educations and that these mean that – in this application round – there are no grounds to grant approval to the application since there are other educations within this area. This is weighed against the need for other competencies in society that are also needed, not least for the green transition.
My counter-question to Gunilla Svantorp is – and I am sincere about this: On what basis can we in the Riksdag review our authorities' decisions?
Gunilla Svantorp (S)
Madam Speaker! This debate is about the right to student support. That is what this debate is about. Then I have taken an example from one of the visits I have made. It concerns an education that differs from current educations because it has a sustainability perspective in a completely different way than the pilot educations that are currently given support.
This debate is not about over-reviewing the decisions of the Swedish Council for Higher Vocational Education. The Minister may of course think I am saying that, but I have absolutely not done so. It is about how we ensure that new programs, which perhaps do not yet fit into the framework, are also given the opportunity to provide their students with student support. That is what this debate is about.
It is a systemic issue. I am not standing here speaking for a company, but I took the company as an example because it is currently the only company in the world that conducts this activity, and they do it in Sweden. We also, as the Minister knows, have a Swedish company that is in the process of developing and producing the world's first passenger aircraft for electric power, also in Sweden. But quite obviously, they are not to have any pilots who have the competence.
If one thought it was important, one would really try to do something about it instead of somewhat mockingly telling me that the Riksdag is not supposed to overrule the authorities. Of course not. But the government speaks at all times to us in the opposition about how they have a majority and do not need to listen to the opposition for a penny. But then perhaps one needs to change a few things, for example that appendix to the student support ordinance, which the government has the power to do.
My question is still: What does the minister intend to do to ensure that new sustainable jobs also provide the right to student support?
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! I thank Gunilla Svantorp for this excellent debate.
I believe it is important that we respect our authorities and the decisions our authorities make. That this education company has not been granted approval for its application this time does not mean that one cannot be granted approval next time.
I do not want to anticipate what decisions the authorities will make. Ongoing evaluations and application rounds take place within the framework of the Swedish Council for Higher Vocational Education's operations. The entire concept is based on the idea that education programs must be updated at all times and that there must constantly be a dynamic where new education programs enter the system so that one is always updated in relation to the labor market and the needs of companies.
The Swedish Council for Higher Vocational Education is one of the most successful forms of education we have in our country. It was introduced under the previous bourgeois government and has a different ideological thinking than when it comes to Arbetsförmedlingen. It is based on the companies' needs. Training is tailored to the companies' needs, and much of the training takes place on-site in internships and at workplaces. Nine out of ten get jobs.
We are now making major expansions of this activity in the coming years. The focus is, among other things, linked to the green transition. I look forward with confidence to all the possible educational companies that can be part of strengthening the competence linked to the green transition now.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.