Adult education

Fredrik Malm (L)

Mr. Speaker! We shall now debate the Education Committee's report on adult education. It is the committee's report number eleven during this parliamentary session, and in it, motions submitted by members, parties, and party groups during the general motion period in the autumn of 2025 are handled.

I would like to begin by expressing my support for the committee's proposal in the report.

Mr. Speaker! Social development has, in a fairly short time, fundamentally changed the labor market in Sweden and many other countries. Artificial intelligence has become part of everyday life. Digitalization has accelerated in both the public and private sectors. The requirements for competence look completely – or at least in many ways – different today than they did just five or ten years ago.

At the same time, Sweden is being pressured by a more uncertain world, increasing protectionism – not least from the other side of the Atlantic – and an ongoing war in Europe which now, after the attack on Ukraine, has been ongoing for almost four years. This affects our economy, our labor market, our competitiveness, and so on.

Mr. Speaker! When this government took over after the 2022 election, we had a very high inflation. Sweden became poorer. The inhabitants of Sweden became poorer because the value of money was eroded as a result of various factors, primarily in our global environment. The recovery was limited by the recession that followed in the wake of the corona pandemic and the war in Ukraine and which persisted.

This has contributed to the fact that we have had an increasing unemployment in Sweden. Unemployment is partly due to the economic cycle we have and to the fact that the recovery has lagged behind, but it is not only due to that. We also have a structural unemployment in Sweden. A large proportion of the unemployed today have limited skills, and many of them are far from the labor market.

About 70 percent of those registered at Arbetsförmedlingen – it concerns approximately a quarter of a million people, Mr. Speaker – belong to groups with weak competitiveness. For many of them, a lack of knowledge in the Swedish language and low education levels are decisive obstacles to entering a labor market that is becoming increasingly qualified and which demands more and more from us in the form of different types of knowledge, not least as a result of technological developments and the great gains in that area.

At the same time, we have a paradox. We have high unemployment while employers are crying out for competence. This shows that we not only have problems with too many people not having a job to go to, but also problems with employers not finding the competence they need. We thus have a matching problem. This is actually nothing new in Sweden – all governments, regardless of whether they lean to the right or to the left, struggle with the same issues regarding how to achieve a better matching on the labor market.

Mr. Speaker! Komvux and the university college play a very important role in managing this challenge and getting more people into work. Adult education is one of our society's most powerful tools for freedom, inclusion, and growth. It gives many people a second – and sometimes a third – chance to study for upper secondary school competence, change paths, build on previous studies, or simply strengthen their position on the labor market. That is where new futures take shape.

The Liberals have always emphasized the value of education in a good society. Knowledge and skills provide empowerment. It is better and more dignified for people to be given the opportunity to contribute than for them to be passivized through benefit provision.

Mr. Speaker! Now that we have entered 2026, I would say that there are reasons for at least a cautious optimism, even if we cannot know – the global situation is, to say the least, quite volatile. We have an expansive state budget, which will help. We have brighter economic outlooks. We also have the largest school budget in modern times, which is particularly pleasing for the Liberals.

From the government's and the parliamentary majority's side, we have expanded regional vocational adult education, among other things through various budget decisions. In this year's budget, additional funds are added to vocational training. There will be more places within the university colleges and an intensified focus on regional vocational adult education. These are investments that make a concrete difference both for individuals and for the labor market.

At the same time, Mr. Speaker, we must be clear that quality must never be compromised. In recent years, unserious and in some cases purely criminal actors have entered municipal adult education. Skolinspektionen's audits show that municipalities in several cases have failed in follow-up and control. It is serious and must be addressed.

That is why the government appointed an inquiry in November to address the deficiencies that have been noted in adult education and in Swedish for immigrants. Ownership and management screening is necessary to stop unserious actors from conducting adult education. Ultimately, it is about the confidence in the entire system.

Mr. Speaker! The vocational college is a form of education that delivers. Eight out of ten people who study a vocational college education in Sweden have work the year after graduation. It should be said that some had work already before they started their vocational college education, but the labor force participation increases by approximately 10 percent for those who have also studied at the vocational college.

The University Colleges (Yrkeshögskolan) continues to be expanded significantly and is now being further developed with shorter courses, better opportunities for retraining in the middle of working life, and more long-term funding. From the government's and the Tidö parties' side, we are clear that the University Colleges shall grow, but it shall do so with quality and strong links to working life.

Let me also say something about SFI, Mr. Speaker. Here in the Liberals, we are very clear: the Swedish language is the key to entering Swedish society. It is not a hurdle but a prerequisite, and it is both a right and a responsibility. Therefore, the government has set clearer requirements on progression and quality. That more people learn Swedish faster, enter the workforce, and become self-sufficient is crucial both for the individual's freedom and for the cohesion of society.

I am also very pleased that we have developed a new form of education, namely the national vocational education. It is now being built up as a pilot, with inspiration from the model that exists for the university college (yrkeshögskolan), and can provide many with a fast and practical path to jobs. This is an example of how we modernize the system without compromising on quality.

(Applause)

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

Caroline Helmersson Olsson (S)

Mr. Speaker! This is the fourth and final motion report on adult education that the committee is debating during the parliamentary term. It covers the different forms of education within komvux and the university colleges.

We debated SFI just before Christmas, and shortly we are expecting a government bill on the university college. Therefore, my focus today is on komvux and particularly on a form of education that is very rarely highlighted in the debate, namely komvux as adapted education.

Mr. Speaker! According to the Education Act, the goals for komvux are that adults shall be supported and stimulated in their learning, be given the opportunity to develop knowledge and competence to strengthen their position in work and social life, and be given the opportunity for personal development. It shall also provide a good foundation for further education and be a basis for the national and regional skills supply.

This case obviously also concerns the adapted education. Over the years, I have met quite a few who have taken exactly that education; some of them have actually been here in the Riksdag and visited. They have had very clear goals: to get a job, be able to support themselves, become free and live a free life. They want to contribute and work to one hundred percent of their ability. Many of them are closer to the labor market than both society and employers often believe. Therefore, politics must create conditions that facilitate the transition to work, and the path to work very often goes through studies.

Mr. Speaker! Approximately 7,570 students are currently attending adapted upper secondary school, and Skolverket has, for the third time, followed up on employment after completed studies in this school form. In the budget bill for this year, it is reported that 18 percent were in work after their studies. 57 percent were in daily activity, which in itself is good, but there may be locking effects. Only 10 percent continued their studies.

Why do so few continue their studies? The investigation "Changing careers as an adult", which has been reported in the Government Offices since 2024, provides several answers. Despite the target group being relatively large, the group of students is small. The reasons are numerous. The educational supply is limited. The National Agency for Education shows in a report that only just over half of the country's municipalities offer adapted komvux. The availability of vocational and apprenticeship training and workplace-based learning is small and the opportunities for further education are few. There is no adapted university college or university. Furthermore, there are obstacles that lie outside the Education Committee's direct responsibility, such as the functioning of the labor market and social insurance systems, silos between authorities, a lack of holistic perspective, and not least attitudes and ignorance.

Mr. Speaker! A Swedish municipality writes the following on its website: You cannot receive student aid from CSN to attend adapted education for adults. If you receive compensation from Försäkringskassan or another authority, it is important that you contact your caseworker.

Mr. Speaker! Here lies the greatest obstacle. Those who most clearly see and experience these obstacles are the students who actually want to study, work, contribute, and become free. The lack of opportunity for study financing practically prevents participation in both vocational training and studies altogether. The municipalities can grant financial assistance, but there is a palpable lack of equality, both between different municipalities and in the Försäkringskassan's assessments.

It is good that there is a study grant from the Swedish Agency for Special Pedagogical Education, SPSM. But this grant cannot be combined with other compensations. One must, therefore, live on only this grant during the period of study. The grant was introduced in 2012 with a cap of 9,700 kronor. Today, 14 years later, the cap is still 9,700 kronor. Then it is not strange that fewer people study.

We often speak in this chamber about inflation, household finances, and growth, and the committee chairman spoke about freedom, growth, and inclusion. Then this issue, albeit small, should be self-evident and important for both the economy of society and the individual human being. It concerns economically very vulnerable households.

Mr. Speaker! I move for the approval of the Social Democrats' reservation 10 under point 8, which reads: "Today, many people with an intellectual disability refrain from studying within komvux due to difficulties in combining different economic compensations. The opportunities for these people to study within komvux need to be strengthened. We therefore want it investigated how the financing of adapted education within komvux should function." Such a proposal is already on the government's table. Implement it!

When it comes to SPSM's contributions, no investigation was needed. It is regulated in a decree that the government can decide on itself. SPSM has submitted concrete proposals for changes to the decree that would make the contribution at least approach CSN's levels without requiring increased appropriations. Tell the government to implement it!

Mr. Speaker! We Social Democrats, of course, stand behind our other proposals in the report. It concerns regional vocational adult education, support, student health, learning materials, and SFI. But since this is my last motion debate on adult education, it feels very important to conclude with this: A society becomes strong first when everyone is given a place and when every human being, regardless of functional ability, is given the opportunity to contribute with their strength and their voice. And to those of you who will continue to sit in the chamber, I want to send this: Work for a system where support is given according to need and not according to budget item, where no one is shut out from the labor market by prejudices or complicated systems, and where every human being is seen as the asset she actually is!

(Applause)

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

Patrick Reslow (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Let me first and foremost express my approval of the committee's proposal.

We live in a world that is changing rapidly, and as a result, the requirements and conditions for many are also changing. The entry values we once had may not be the values that apply when we are going to start our second or third job. Then there must be an opportunity to constantly seek new competence. That is why Swedish adult education is so good, because it gives us the opportunity to renew and broaden our competence and find new paths so that we can participate in society, work and pay tax. It is important.

The Sweden Democrats are strong advocates of adult education. But we set requirements for adult education regarding quality and content, just as we do for other education in the country. We also set requirements on the students in adult education and on the teachers being competent and qualified, carrying out their mission and teaching in the very best way. Under these premises, we Sweden Democrats are for a strong adult education.

Mr. Speaker! It feels as though adult education has been discussed more than usual lately. We had a debate on SFI, which I shall return to, and during the budget debates, adult education was also discussed. The committee has, therefore, talked a lot about adult education recently. This is obviously good, and as Caroline Helmersson Olsson said, more debate awaits as propositions on the area are submitted.

Today we are dealing with motions from the general motion period. The motion deadline was at the beginning of October, and since then, a number of things have happened. Many motions are perhaps more or less obsolete because some things are in progress or have already been implemented through legislative changes.

One such area is Sfi, where rule changes have already been introduced. We debated Sfi in the autumn, and the new regulatory framework entered into force now in January. Sfi is an area where the Sverigedemokraterna have had strong views and have been very critical. In the harvest of motions, we also encounter many demands. During the Social Democratic years, the focus was not so great on making changes; not so much happened. Sfi was still quite unregulated, and one could go there in all eternity. Nothing was also done about the problem with unauthorized teachers.

In anticipation of the new legislation, we began looking at the content to reform SFI. We have now decided on a maximum limit for how long one can study at SFI, and we have set requirements for the municipalities to have action plans.

We have also set requirements that there must be documentation that follows the student when they may participate in education in another municipality. The student also has the right to participate in another municipality.

An assessment of knowledge and the individual action plan must be made. It shall contain an entry regarding the point in time when the student began studying at SFI so that everyone is aware of this. This ensures that students cannot move between municipalities, exploit the system and study for as long as they want without actually learning Swedish.

Then we come to the next problem. The content of the education must be strengthened and changed. More proposals will be submitted there. The Sweden Democrats and the government have recently appointed an inquiry that aims to specifically look at knowledge in the Swedish language linked to the demand on the labor market. It is about having the correct knowledge in the Swedish language that is required to get a job.

We have also set requirements that it must be ensured that individual educational providers maintain a high quality. We know that there are problems. There are educations where the content is not correct. We might have culinary training without any restaurant kitchen and so on. It is not good, and it must be changed.

We shall also ensure that we do not have criminal persons conducting educational activities. Unsuitable actors shall be removed from the market. Therefore, we shall also tighten the supervision of the individual educational providers within komvux.

We therefore want a strengthened ownership and management review, just as it has been introduced for regular schools with Skolverket. We also want that within komvux.

We want to strengthen the systematic quality work. We want to see that the teaching time is ensured and that the education is organized and conducted in accordance with the Education Act.

All this is intended to lead up to a legislative proposal to be presented on June 15, 2027. A great deal is being done in this area. We Sverigedemokrater are pleased that attention is now being paid to the content and that questions are being discussed regarding tightening the requirements and the supervision so that we get order and clarity in the system.

One still maintains a possibility of running things on a contract basis. It can be a possible solution for many municipalities when there is no better way to go when they perhaps do not themselves have the exact competence to conduct the teaching.

We also have a bill in progress regarding the university colleges. It will be coming very soon. Therefore, we cannot say much more about it right now. The purpose is to broaden the university colleges' mandate and to strengthen the governance of the programs.

Adult education is important. It fulfills an important function. This is the last time we discuss adult education during this parliamentary term, but we will return during the next parliamentary term. By then, we will have even more legislative changes in place.

(Applause)

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

Nadja Awad (V)

Madam Speaker! Just as in regular schools, it is a prerequisite for a truly good school system that adult education focuses on what is most important. Quality and needs must always come first, not the opportunity to enrich oneself from the operations.

It is therefore important that there are qualified teachers so that all students receive the support they need to complete the education. This must not be deprioritized to create profit distribution to the owners. Vänsterpartiet believes that the goal of all education should be to provide the students with the best knowledge. Therefore, the market adaptation must be stopped.

Sweden is today the only country in the world that allows unlimited profits within the private education sector, which are simultaneously financed via public funds. The legislation in other countries is significantly less generous towards private profit interests within the education sector.

Even though the activities within adult education in many ways resemble those within primary school and upper secondary school, the market logic sometimes manifests in other ways. The savings on personnel and the streamlining of the organization are the same. But within adult education, there is not the same expectation that full-time studies mean that one is on-site at all times.

In that way, one can save on premises and staff. If the student then does not manage the large amount of self-study, it is possible to re-register it to get new money from the municipality to offer the same substandard education once again.

Those active in adult education point out that the market adaptation that has occurred has caused costs to be pressured in a way that has deteriorated the quality within adult education even where it is still conducted under municipal management, because it is forced to compete with cheaper private operations.

Market adaptation also involves a waste of resources when profits are extracted from the school funding that is actually intended for teaching. If the school has now built up a large system for control and auditing, it is the opposite that characterizes adult education: a lack of control and auditing.

Today, it is only municipalities and county councils that may be principals for municipal adult education and municipal adult education as adapted education. Only municipalities may be principals for municipal adult education in Swedish for immigrants.

Many municipalities use procurement to outsource parts or all of their operations as a contract. The municipality, however, retains the status of the contracting authority and thus the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that the education follows laws and regulations, and the education must comply with the entire regulatory framework for komvux.

The majority of reports from Skolverket and Skolinspektionen show that the municipalities often fall short when they procure adult education and outsource parts of it. It can be a matter of setting sufficient quality requirements regarding what teaching time is expected.

Vänsterpartiet considers today's legislation to be too weak. Today, the municipalities do not have enough tools or incentives to be able to audit the operations where adult education is outsourced.

We believe that the government should return with a legislative proposal that means the municipalities have both the right and the obligation to conduct ownership and management reviews of education providers that conduct municipal adult education on a contract basis. Furthermore, the requirements for the municipalities' supervision need to increase.

The Government should also return with a legislative proposal that entails stricter requirements on the municipalities' supervision of adult education conducted on a contract basis.

Madam Speaker! For the Left Party, it is also important that all people have the right to multiple chances and equal opportunities for education. The purchase of course literature is a large economic burden for many students.

That the student must purchase their own course literature can be seen as a departure from the principle of free education. For those who study the same education during their teenage years, it costs nothing. At the same time, it can also sometimes be a problem to obtain certain books when they sell out in the bookstore.

School libraries, of course, also do not purchase enough copies of each book for them to suffice for everyone. If the heads of schools, on the other hand, purchase books, it also facilitates the teachers' planning, as they know which book they will be working with in the coming years instead of having to adapt to the publishers' annual releases.

The educational materials investigation proposed that students in municipal adult education at the basic level should be given access to educational materials at no cost. The government chooses instead to present a bill which, among other things, means that the head of the school can decide that learning tools which each student within education at the basic or upper secondary level, or within adapted education at the basic or upper secondary level, has for their own use and may keep as their property, shall be procured by the students themselves or offered for fees that at most correspond to the head of the school's procurement costs.

Vänsterpartiet believes that sharper regulation is needed so that costs are not shifted onto the students. Therefore, we believe that the government should return with a legislative proposal which means that students in adult education shall only be expected to provide themselves with individual learning tools.

In the current situation, we in Vänsterpartiet want to demand approval for reservation 6, which concerns tightened control and supervision of adult education, and reservation 12, which concerns SFI. There, we shall see qualified teachers. It should simply be the requirement when teaching within SFI.

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

Oliver Rosengren (M)

Madam Speaker! The Swedish economy is burdened by the fact that far too many people do not have a job. Large groups have been placed outside the main labor market. These are people who want nothing more than to find their place in Sweden but who instead are forgotten and hidden in exclusion and in areas of exclusion without sufficient knowledge of Swedish or knowledge of a job to be able to secure their place here in our country and be of use to all of Sweden.

It is a crucial political task that we succeed in unleashing the power that exists in adult education to strengthen the work line. Adult education in all its parts is crucial for exactly this – our major project, the work line.

Today we are debating the Education Committee's motion report. During this parliamentary term, we have implemented a series of important reforms. We have strengthened adult education, we have strengthened vocational training, we have developed the University of Applied Sciences, we have implemented the pilot with national vocational training, and we have tried to ensure that the resources going into adult education are also put to work.

In the budget for next year, a good example of this is that we are strengthening the resources per location and that we are revising the regulations. We can no longer have a situation where the money does not come to use.

What then is our challenge on the labor market? It is that we have large groups who are unemployed because they lack education but still do not educate themselves for work. We have heard it from a series of different experts and from responsible authorities: The problem is not a lack of resources. The money is in the system.

Madam Speaker! We have made such large reinforcements of adult education that there are plenty of resources, even resources in abundance in many parts. But the money is not being put to work. The utilization rate for vocational adult education, to take an example, has since 2017 been that approximately one fully funded education spot out of three stands empty – despite the fact that large groups of people in our country without work lack education. It is clearly a situation we cannot accept.

That is why we need to ensure that we strengthen the reform work. In the Moderaterna, we have done a substantial development work to investigate how we can ensure that we release the power that exists in adult education, in vocational training, and in the Swedish model of industrial relations. In that way, we can ensure that more people without education come to an education and further to a job.

Some points in that reform work, Madam Speaker, are, for example, that we want to see the different vocational educations merged. Today we have yrkesvux, we have labor market training, and we have piloten with national vocational training. We see that one could have merged these three into a new, unified national vocational education. When one carries out such a reform, one also needs to review the compensation system.

Madam Speaker! Today we are building in an economic inequality that is unacceptable. Women, who often educate themselves for welfare professions, do so in the municipal vocational adult education and need to take out loans to attend the courses. Men, who often educate themselves for industrial professions, do so instead in the Employment Service's labor market trainings, where one receives a grant to attend the training.

Unemployed women need to take out loans, and unemployed men receive subsidies. We obviously cannot accept such economic inequality in the education system aimed at the unemployed. We need, on the contrary, to ensure that a fair compensation system is provided that applies to everyone who is unemployed and needs to train for work.

Madam Speaker! We also want to ensure that we strengthen the apprenticeship and internship systems. When we meet the university college, vocational adult education, or the Public Employment Service, but perhaps above all when we meet employers who want to be involved and contribute, a common problem described is that it is complicated with all these rules. It is different systems, different certificates, and different compensation models from all the different educational systems.

For us, it is internships and apprenticeship training. Why complicate it? We need to see to it that we change this. We need to see to it that we get a unified regulatory framework for internship and apprenticeship positions regardless of which is the sending education system. We need to see to it that the employers who are allowed to be internship sites and apprenticeship providers in one system can also be so in another. In that way, we free up even more APL positions and even more LIA positions in the different education systems so that more can learn the job at the job.

We also need to ensure that the compensation system is simplified, Madam Speaker. What we mean is that instead of having all these different rules, which also often result in flat compensations, a discount should be given on the employer's contribution for the person who is a supervisor. One peculiar thing with such a solution is that the compensation also increases if one assigns a person who is more productive or experienced and thus has a higher salary. It can also mean that some people who have worked for a long time at the workplace and perhaps are considering scaling down or doing something else because they find it exhausting to perform the usual work tasks instead, can start switching over to being exactly a supervisor. One does not suffer relatively as large losses if one uses those who have a somewhat higher salary as supervisors.

Madam Speaker! There is important reform work to be done here. Therefore, we must ensure that we continue on the path already taken, which is also established in the committee report. We strengthen with both resources and reforms with the clear objective: No person who can work shall be without work in Sweden. We shall ensure that those who have come to Sweden also enter the Swedish labor market. They shall be given the best opportunities to become their best selves in our labor market and to put all the abilities and knowledge they have at their disposal to contribute to a better country.

I vote in favor of the committee's proposal in the report.

(Applause)

In this speech, Johanna Rantsi (M) concurred.

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

Caroline Helmersson Olsson (S)

Madam Speaker! It is always just as inspiring to listen to the member, because he truly believes in what he says.

I have only one short question. The work line – does it also apply to the group I just spoke about in my speech?

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

Oliver Rosengren (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you very much, Caroline Helmersson Olsson, for the question!

I would like to start by thanking you for the kind judgment and also thank you for all the enjoyable debates we have had during my first term here, which is not your first term. It has felt wonderful and secure for me as a newcomer to have a fellow debater with such experience and stability as the member has. Many thanks for that!

Naturally, the work line also applies to the groups you spoke about in your speech. Also in this area, we have presented a series of new reforms. We must ensure that those who want to make themselves available to the labor market and grow in their abilities have the opportunity to do so. Here, the education system must meet the demand, but here also, compensation and other activation measures must be in place.

We must ensure that it becomes possible to combine vocational training with other types of employment in cases where it is necessary to do so. People must be made to feel that they can be on the labor market and move closer to it with what are their opportunities.

Individual solutions must be totally accessible here. It is often about people with very different life situations and very different challenges, and in that case, the system must also meet those needs.

We believe in the idea, Madam Speaker, that everyone should be included when it comes to the labor market. We must also ensure that we stand for this in concrete action. This applies both to strengthening the education system and to reforming the various forms of employment that exist. We must also reform the compensations to the individuals who participate in education and employment.

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

Caroline Helmersson Olsson (S)

Madam Speaker! It sounds good that everyone is to be included in the future vision for Member Rosengren.

As I pointed out in my speech, there are aggravating circumstances regarding the compensations specifically. There is a very simple way to reform SPSM's student grants. SPSM has sent proposals to the government every year since 2019 on how the regulation itself could be reformed to raise the levels. Inflation and rising prices affect these people just like everyone else.

Can Oliver Rosengren promise me that he will immediately speak with the Minister for Education about revising the ordinance?

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

Oliver Rosengren (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you very much for the question, Caroline Helmersson Olsson!

No, I will not promise that, and there are a couple of reasons for it. For the first, of course, that type of question must be tested in the budget process, just like all other expenditure-driving questions. For the second, there can of course be things where one might need to go in and tweak here and there in the regulatory frameworks, but when it comes to vocational training and adult education, we see that there are somewhat larger structural obstacles that mean there are reasons to try to intervene a bit more fundamentally in these education systems and also in the compensation systems, both to the individual and to the providers.

It would probably be better if, in some of these cases, people did not have to turn fully to the student aid system. Instead, the education could become part of the total compensation for participating in various activities. We need to ensure that we get a holistic view of this.

When I was a municipal councilor responsible for, among other things, adult education, I had much contact with this type of intervention. One of the challenges that exists is that not everyone does this work as thoroughly as the fantastic employees in Växjö municipality did, where they ensured that there were clear adaptations with close labor market connections for these educations.

It is one of the reasons why we want to see a new national vocational education where we consolidate the various resources that exist in vocational adult education, labor market training, and national vocational education into a unified national vocational education system so that this target group is not missed, so that it receives the adaptations it needs, and so that it does not vary too much, Madam Speaker, when it comes to, for example, which municipality one happens to live in or where one is in life right now.

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

Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! Sometimes one needs to broaden one's horizons and start somewhere other than in Sweden.

What is happening in the USA is deeply worrying. We have seen it over a number of years, but what happened last week in Davos will probably be a turning point for Sweden and Europe.

Sweden is a small, export-dependent country. One of our absolutely most important markets is the USA. But when Donald Trump first threatens Greenland and then threatens with trade wars and high tariffs, the limit is reached for Europe's politicians. Enough is enough. The time has come for another era.

We can no longer rely on the USA as the market where our Swedish export successes shall make new gains. Europe is now negotiating and has come far with an agreement with South America, the Mercosur agreement. They also very recently landed a major agreement with India. We have not been as active in India previously, as the Indians themselves have had a rather protectionist policy with quite high tariffs. Now, however, it is different with the agreement that has been put in place.

This will affect the Swedish labor market and the Swedish export industry. Now there will be new conditions. There will be new products we must work with, new types of customer relations, and new types of business models. What Donald Trump is doing will affect our trade policy and our industrial policy. It will also affect our education policy.

As if this were not enough, we are already living in a changing time regarding the green transition, the planetary boundaries, melting ice, the costs that come in the wake of increased climate change, as well as the business sector's need to transition and come up with new products and services that can be exported. To this, we must of course also add the explosive development of artificial intelligence. We are simply living in a time of great change.

What we see in the Swedish labor market, alongside what the Moderate Oliver Rosengren just presented about that many lack education and are far from the labor market, is now also a very high unemployment among academics. The picture must therefore be complemented. Good education is not always enough to be able to get a job. This is largely due, I would like to assert, to the fact that we live in a changing time.

Actually, it is not a problem in itself with all these challenges. The problem is that we are not keeping up. We see now how many people with long work experience get stuck in unemployment because their skills no longer match the labor market's needs – and this need will truly change fundamentally even more in the future.

Madam Speaker! This leads us into a changed education policy.

Let us talk briefly about the difference between academic education and adult education. In academic education, we need to educate people who will become changemakers in society, who can take on the new era and who can create tomorrow's companies, tomorrow's products and tomorrow's services. In adult education, we see a much more acute need to adapt the educations to the harsh reality here and now. The educations need to be matched against the needs that the business sector and the public sector see here and now.

There are big things we in Sweden need to do regarding both academic education and adult education. Sometimes in the debate, this is mixed up and it is thought that we only need to educate for the labor market we see now, but the Center Party believes that we must maintain a very high level of breadth in academic education in parallel with our development of adult education.

Perhaps it is not even just a work line that is needed, but we need to develop it into a competence line. It is not enough just with the idea of moving from benefits to jobs. That shift will not happen if we do not equip our citizens with competence, both for the labor market that exists here and now and for the one that exists in five or ten years. The Center Party therefore actually advocates that we change the name of the work line and call it a competence line instead.

Job is the key to a good life, where education is often also the prerequisite for a job. One example is apprenticeship training, which we in Centerpartiet advocate strongly for. It has turned out that not everyone learns best in a classroom. Many people, not least those who have had it very tough in school, learn best when they get out to a workplace and learn to work practically in real work environments. We would like to see more apprenticeship training.

Madam Speaker! We also need to mention this with the declining birth rates and that the government is pursuing a policy where they do not want people to stay in Sweden. We in the Center Party do not see that there will be growth from there being fewer people. We think it is completely illogical. Instead of paying 350,000 for a one-way ticket away from Sweden, we want to increase integration, increase language skills, and increase people's participation in Swedish working life.

We have launched something that we call job Swedish, which is a development of SFI. We want to see it in two tracks.

The research is somewhat divided. There are at least two perspectives: Is it the case that one learns the language best if one has a job or an occupation and comes into contact with Swedes and the Swedish language? Or is it the case that one needs to learn the language first in order to then enter the labor market and be able to be of use?

We want to pair these two perspectives together into one. Very many low-educated people have come to Sweden. We want one track, which we call job Swedish, to be aimed at people quickly learning a Swedish that becomes good enough for them to enter a workplace and, in this workplace, be able to develop their language so that we can have both. But then there are also many highly educated people who have come to Sweden. Why should they join with low-educated people who can hardly do anything, really? There, we want to see more academic education so that engineers and doctors who come to Sweden can learn an academic Swedish.

Madam Speaker! The vocational college, finally, is a success. We political parties in the Swedish Riksdag are largely in agreement about that. We in the Center Party would like to see more and faster expansion of the vocational college and, furthermore, a more stable and long-term vocational college where the conditions become clearer. The vocational college succeeds in what we all desire: the labor market has a need, the need is signaled to the educational provider, and one receives a course according to the need. Out into the labor market come educated people who can enter employment directly. It is a superb form that we would like to develop. We also want to test the idea that some shorter academic educations can move over to the vocational college.

With that, Madam Speaker, I would like to move for approval of reservation 5.

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

Mathias Bengtsson (KD)

Madam Speaker! We are debating adult education.

There can be many reasons why one needs to educate themselves as an adult. It is not uncommon for a student who has struggled with reading to, after a number of years, become motivated to tackle their studies and want to supplement their grades to obtain eligibility for higher education or to pursue a vocational education.

It can also apply to a newcomer who needs to be integrated into Swedish society in order to become self-sufficient. The person may have a profession from before but needs to supplement it with things that are specific to Sweden in order to be able to practice the profession in our country. Or the person may simply want to acquire a new profession that offers better opportunities for jobs in Sweden.

But if one is to enter the labor market at all as a newcomer, the Swedish language is completely decisive. Almost a quarter of the companies state that lack of language skills is the main cause of their recruitment problems. Therefore, SFI must function better than it does today.

There are far too many children in Sweden who have never seen their parents go to work. They have never seen their parents come home after a day of workplace community with colleagues. The adult role models that these children would have needed to have in the family are replaced many times by criminals, who recruit directly from the street into youth gangs and organized crime.

Then it is not only a shadow society and parallel societies of exclusion that grow, but also an ethnically and culturally segregated Sweden. It goes without saying that it is dangerous and wrong if people who come to our country already from the outset experience themselves as being doomed to fail and get stuck in these parallel societies. For in a society where large groups of people do not speak the same language, trust, safety, and the sense of belonging will also naturally decrease.

Adult education in the form of SFI is therefore an immensely important piece of the puzzle for more people to be able to become a part of Swedish society and for Sweden as a country to manage the great integration challenge that we face. Language is the key to a society where everyone is given the opportunity to develop to their full potential. No one shall be held back, and no one shall be left behind.

Madam Speaker! It is time for a policy based on the premise that everyone can and shall learn Swedish. In that way, we improve integration and counter exclusion. Therefore, SFI must function.

In this context, it is also necessary to emphasize how important it is that the person who is newly arrived quickly enters employment and receives the education required to enter the labor market. It is important for families to receive the income that a job entails. It is important for children to see their parents go to work. Not least, it is also important for the individual's self-esteem to enter employment as soon as possible, become self-sufficient, and avoid being dependent on benefits.

Many testify that studies in Swedish in combination with studies in vocational education significantly increase the opportunities for jobs and establishment. The best way to learn the language is usually to use it, and preferably in a natural environment. Therefore, it is important that as many as possible get the chance to learn vocational Swedish at work and combine SFI with yrkesvux.

It can create a better context and motivation for students to learn Swedish when the goal of the education becomes vocational knowledge and there is a clear path to self-sufficiency. Therefore, it is important that there is great flexibility when it comes to being able to combine SFI with internship or employment.

Madam Speaker! In Sweden, lifelong learning is prioritized. It is and shall be possible to return to studies to build upon one's competence at komvux, folk high schools, or learning centers whenever needed. Many of us have changed or will change careers several times during life, either because we want to ourselves or because we need to change career paths for some reason. In that case, it is important that there is always an opportunity to improve one's situation and realize one's life dreams through education and hard work. In that respect, Swedish adult education is a fantastic opportunity.

With this, I move for approval of the committee's proposal.

(Applause)

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(A decision was to be taken on 4 February.)

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