Education and Training Monitor 2023

1. The teaching profession

Sweden is facing teacher shortages in most education sectors. By 2035, Sweden will need 153 000 qualified teachers from early childhood education and care (ECEC) up to adult education at upper secondary level. According to projections, it will have 141 000 new qualified teachers and ECEC teachers by then, leaving a shortage of some 12 000 qualified teachers. The share of qualified teachers compared to teachers without a formal qualification varies by county, municipality and school. This situation calls for initiatives to allow unqualified staff to gain the necessary qualifications (NAE, 2022a). In compulsory schools, the share of certified teachers qualified in at least one of their subjects is 70.8% (school year 2022/23). In upper-secondary schools it is 83.4%, an overall increase of 3.8 pps compared to 2016/2017, which was stronger in municipal (+5.2 pps) than in private schools (+1.9 pps). Municipal schools also have more qualified teachers, both in compulsory schools (71.8% vs private 63.9%) and in secondary schools (86.7% vs private 75.7%) (NAE, 2023a). To meet the demand in vocational education and training (VET), the number of students in the VET teacher programmes would need to double in the coming decade (Cedefop, 2023).

Recent actions aim to improve working conditions and the attractiveness of the profession. According to TALIS, Swedish teachers work nearly 5 hours per week more than their European peers. Despite that, they spend less time teaching and have more administrative work (3.2 hours vs EU-22 average of 1.9 hours). The ratio between working hours and teaching time is the second lowest in the EU, with only 43.9% of time spent teaching (EU-22 52.1%) (OECD, 2020). Sweden offers therefore, a state grant for school providers who employ teaching assistants to ease the administrative burden on teachers. Moreover, the creation of a national professional programme for teachers (Regeringen, 2023b) is underway, which should enable competence development, increase the quality of teaching and make the profession more attractive. Teachers, ECEC teachers and principals will be involved in creating the programme (Regeringen, 2023c). According to TALIS 2018 data, only 10.7% of teachers believe their profession is valued in society, with the share falling drastically with experience in the profession (20.3% before and 8.7% after 5 years). Permanent employment is frequent (87.6% of lower secondary teachers; EU-22 average 80.30%). Teachers' degree of autonomy in choosing the course content, selecting teaching methods and assessing student learning is among the highest in the EU (OECD, 2020). The National Agency for Education (NAE) supports school providers in increasing the attractiveness of the profession locally¹.

Teachers’ salaries are below the average for tertiary educated people, set locally and salaries only rise slightly over a teacher's career. Since 1994 teachers’ salaries are based on individual and local conditions, with no guaranteed salary rises. Salaries are lower than those of other full-time workers with a tertiary education (ranging from 0.69 for early childhood education and care (ECEC) to 0.83 for upper-secondary education), and the ratios are lower than the EU-22 average for both ECEC (EU: 0.79) and for all levels of school education (EU upper-secondary: 0.94) (OECD, 2023). Sweden is also one of the few countries where teacher salaries are below GDP per capita at all educational levels. Salaries have risen only slightly over time. Salaries for lower secondary teachers increased by only 32.5% by the end of their career, one of the lowest increases in the EU (European Commission, 2022).

Financial incentives can reward excellence in teaching and working in disadvantaged schools. Teachers can get higher salaries through two initiatives: 1. The ‘Boost for Teachers’ Salaries’ initiative enables school founders since 2016/2017 to provide teachers that they consider to be ‘excellent’ with permanent or temporary financial bonuses (NAE, 2023e). 2. The grant for the career positions of ‘first teacher’ and ‘lecturer’, since 2020, provides increases that vary depending on whether the teacher works in a school with especially difficult conditions (NAE, 2023d). In both initiatives, school providers can get grants from the state to finance these salary increases; the amount of the grant depends on the number of pupils in their school(s). To get a salary increase, teachers must meet some basic requirements for the position such as being qualified teachers, having a certain number of years of teaching experience or making special efforts to improve teaching and they must be selected by the schoolprovider. The amount reserved in the budget for 2022/2023 for the ‘Boost for Teachers’ Salaries’ is EUR 300 million, and for career positions it is EUR 180 million a year, of which EUR 40 million is reserved for schools with especially difficult conditions.

Sweden provides several lateral routes to gaining teacher qualifications, some with financial support. The ‘Boost for teachers’ scheme enables teachers to supplement their qualifications and skills with courses at universities, approved by the National Agency for Education and supported by a grant. School providers receive the grant and decide how teachers can use it. The amount received depends on the course content, with priority given to subjects with the biggest teacher shortages (NAE, 2023c). Other routes into the profession are complementary educational training for people with an academic degree or with previous academic studies in a teaching subject to add a teacher qualification², further education for already employed teachers who lack a degree qualification³, and supplementary education for people with a foreign teaching degree⁴. Unqualified teachers are showing interest in obtaining lacking qualifications, which is currently boosting the number of graduates from teaching studies.

2. Early childhood education and care

In 2021, participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) was among the highest in the EU. In 2019, Sweden has already exceeded the revised Barcelona target of 45% for the participation in formal childcare of children under 3 years old (53%). The participation rate has continued rising to reach 54.4% in 2022, significantly above the EU average of 35.7%. For children from the age of 3 to the beginning of compulsory school, Sweden has also reached the EU-level target of 96% for 2030 (EU 92.7%) in 2021. The participation rate does not differ significantly either by region or by age⁵. Every fifth child attends a private ECEC facility (19%)⁶.

Although there are no difficulties in providing ECEC places, the shortage of qualified ECEC teachers negatively affects the work. The share of qualified ECEC teachers varies by region, from about 30% in Stockholm county to 54% in Värmland⁷. The teachers trade union points out that the differences at municipal level are even higher: from 22% to 75%. Qualified ECEC teachers find it difficult to follow the curriculum when they are the only qualified ECEC teacher in the facility (60% of such teachers) or in the team (40%) (Lärarförbundet, 2022).

3. School education

Early leaving from education and training (ELET) continues to increase, but it is still at the EU-level target. In 2022, ELET was at 8.8%, below the EU average of 9.6% and the EU target of under 9%. Nevertheless, the early school leaving rate has increased by 1.3 pps since 2012, unlike the overall decrease seen at EU level. The gender gap in favour of girls is above the EU average (3.7 pps vs EU 3.1 pps) and has widened by 1.5 pps since 2012. Foreign-born pupils from non-EU countries are nearly three times more likely to leave education early than their Swedish-born peers (17.3% vs 6.7%)⁸. In 2022, 84.2% of the Swedish population had completed at least upper-secondary education⁹.

Reading performance is good, but it is negatively affected by low socio-economic status and a lack of language knowledge. The average reading performance of 4th grade pupils is, according to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021, above the EU-19 average (544 vs EU-19 527 points). As in other EU countries, pupils with a high socio-economic status perform better than those with a low socio-economic status (SE: 90-point difference against the EU-19: 80 points). A relatively high share of children feel that they do not belong at their school (13.9%); their reading performance is 32 points lower on average, which is one of the largest differences among the EU countries participating in the PIRLS study. Bullying in school is among the lowest among the EU countries that participated in PIRLS, showing the effectiveness of the strong focus on anti-bullying in Sweden (see Education and Training Monitor 2021). Cyberbullying is much more widespread, and being exposed to it correlates with a much weaker reading performance. The reading performance of children who only sometimes speak the language of the test at home is 50 points lower than of those who always speak it, corresponding to more than one year of teaching (see Figure 1) (European Commission, 2023). This confirms the importance of early language acquisition and related support.

Figure 1: Reading performance and language of the test spoken, PIRLS 2021

Digitalisation affects schooling. The 2021 PIRLS study shows that moderate use of digital devices for schoolwork is correlated with higher reading performance, as pupils who spend 30 minutes or less a day using a digital device for homework perform slightly better (by 8 or 9 points, respectively) than pupils using a device more or not at all. In line with PIRLS findings, the government decided to act upon the results of the teaching material enquiry and provide more resources (EUR 62 million in 2023) for teaching materials, primarily printed textbooks (Regeringen, 2023d). As a result of the launch of ChatGPT, the NAE now also advises teachers against basing grades on homework assignments unless they can ensure that they were written by pupils and not produced by AI (NAE, 2023b).

Swedish pupils today read less than pupils did 10 years ago. A study comparing data on compulsory school pupils from 2007 and 2017 found a significant reduction in the proportion of pupils who read at least one full page a day (for non-fiction: -11 pps for grades 4-6 and -17 pps for grades 7-9; for fiction: -37 pps for grades 4-6 and -25 pps for grades 7-9). It concluded that the gap in reading skills reflects a widening gap between pupils who still read extensively at school and those who do not read at all (Vinterek et al., 2022). The School Inspectorate checked how 25 compulsory schools encourage pupils to read. It concluded that pupils prefer traditional books to read fiction and digital media to find facts. Pupils also said that too much reading on screens can cause physical problems such as headaches, tired eyes and general fatigue. Teachers and principals emphasised the importance of variety, with digital reading complementing analogue reading (Skolinspektionen, 2022).

An increasing number of pupils encounter difficulties moving to upper-secondary education, though there are some recent improvements. Since the end of 1990s, pupils need a pass grade in a certain number of school subjects in the 9th grade of compulsory school to enter national secondary education programmes (upper-secondary education). A significant number of pupils (nearly 18 000 in 2022, or 15% of all pupils) do not meet the requirements for the national secondary education programme based on their grades from compulsory school. There is also a slight but steady downward trend in the percentage of pupils qualifying for upper-secondary school, resulting in 6.4 pps fewer pupils qualifying between 1998 and 2022, though between 2019 and 2022 the number of qualifying boys has risen by 1.3 pps. To support the pupils who do not qualify immediately, the government puts on vacation schools from the end of the 9th grade and introduction programmes to reach the level needed to enrol in upper-secondary school (NAE, 2022c). In June 2022, an inquiry was launched to analyse the current system for transition from compulsory to upper-secondary school, assess the educational options of pupils who do not qualify for the national upper-secondary programmes and propose changes to help them prepare for working life (Regeringen, 2022a).

Pupils' chances to qualify for upper-secondary education depend on their background, time of arrival in the country and the conditions of school choice.In the last year of compulsory school, currently 25% of pupils have a migrant background. Among pupils with a migrant background those born in Sweden or those arriving before they start school are nearly as successful as pupils with a Swedish background (83.5% vs 89.5% for Swedish-born in the school year 2022) in qualifying for upper-secondary education. However, if they arrive later, their educational success is lower (66.8% of those arriving in the first 5 grades and 32.0% of those arriving in the last 4 grades of compulsory school qualify). In addition, statistics also show that pupils with a migrant background are much less likely to have highly educated parents (see Figure 2). Not speaking the language of tuition and having a low socio-economic and/ or education background are key obstacles to their children’s success at school. The percentage of pupils from municipal schools qualifying for upper secondary (83.3%) and from private schools (91.6%) differed by 8.3 pps in 2022, partly also linked to the profile of students attending municipal or private schools. In 2022, 20% of 9th grade pupils went to private schools; students with lower educated parents and those that have migrated recently are underrepresented in this group (NAE, 2022c). Greater equity in school choice and the need to start providing additional educational support (e.g. vacation schooling) earlier are therefore under discussion. Compulsory school pupils are now being offered additional study support from the 4th grade and vacation schooling from the very beginning of compulsory school. The National Agency for Education is looking into expanding teaching time in the first three grades of compulsory school by one hour per day, focusing primarily on Swedish and mathematics, to lay solid foundations for all children (Regeringen, 2022b).

Figure 2: Share of pupils according to the parents' level of education, for pupils with Swedish and migrant background, 2022

Swedish government is taking action to improve educational results. The Swedish School Inspectorate has published a report on the challenges faced by school providers and the action taken to reduce segregation in schools. Several interconnected factors affect pupil results, such as school providers management, teaching problems and a lack of a peaceful study environment or special assistance. Socio-economically disadvantaged schools often face several of these factors at the same time (Skolinspektionen, 2022b). The government has decided to take action on most factors. It has made available several investment schemes totalling EUR 48 million for more special education teachers, and an additional EUR 13.5 million for student health services (psychosocial and medical support) (Regeringen, 2023e).

Public opinion is in favour of the state having responsibility for schools. A survey conducted by the Gothenburg University Institute showed that 61% of the general public want the state to take over responsibility for schools from municipalities, and 68% say that profits should not be allowed in tax-funded healthcare and schools (SOM-institutet, 2023:58-59). A recent inquiry also looked into the options to reassign responsibility for schools.

4. Vocational education and training

The labour market prospects of vocational education and training (VET) learners are very good. In 2022, 89% of VET graduates (aged 20-34 years) were employed, above the EU average of 79.7%. Nearly four out of ten pupils in upper-secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education are in vocational programmes (37.1% in 2021)¹⁰. The majority of recent graduates (3 years or less) in Sweden (aged 20-34 years) reported a work experience during their vocational education and training (67% in 2022), higher than the EU average of 60.1%.

Sweden amended its Education Act in June 2022, requiring collaboration between municipalities. The aim is to better adjust supply to regional and national labour market needs. Based on proposals from the inquiry on Planning and Dimensioning Municipal Adult Education and Upper-Secondary School, municipalities must work together to provide specific education programmes in line with the labour market needs in their area. The NAE is designing a model to share information on labour market needs to organisers of upper-secondary VET. A final report on the model was presented in 2022 (Cedefop, 2023).

Sweden is investing in skills development. A new Adjustment Study Fund introduced in 2022 will enable employees to study for up to one year with at least 80% of their salary. The study programme must strengthen the individual’s position on the labour market, taking into account labour market needs.

Sweden is introducing a new grading system to more accurately reflect students’ progress. Initially designed in 2018 and approved by Parliament in 2022, this new system promotes the evaluation of a whole subject instead of individual courses. The objective is to ensure that if students receive lower grades earlier in individual courses, it does not prevent them from taking more challenging courses in the future (Cedefop and ReferNet, forthcoming).

5. Higher education

The tertiary educational attainment (TEA) rate is high and steadily increasing. In 2022, TEA of 25-34-year-olds was 52.4%, above both the EU average (42%) and the EU-level target of 45%, with a sharp increase from 2021 (3.1 pps). Over the past decade, it has increased by 8.9 pps. However, there is a significant gender gap in favour of women, well above the EU average (16.7 pps vs EU 11.1 pps). The TEA of the foreign-born population is relatively high (48.3%), but lower than for the native-born (53.8%)¹¹. The urban-rural gap is one of the highest in the EU (31.4 pps vs 22 pps)¹². The employment rate of recent higher education (HE) graduates (20-34 year old) in 2022 is 92.1%, above the EU average of 86.7%, and 2.5 pps higher than in 2012¹³. The end of the pandemic also marked the end of increased demand for higher education. In the autumn 2022 semester, the number of applicants was 10.1% lower than in autumn 2021, returning to pre-pandemic levels (UHR 2022).

Government funds alternative pathways to teaching and practice schools. In teachers’ studies, practice schools and practice ECEC facilities have been introduced as a pilot since 2014, to give trainee teachers practical experience. These are educational institutions with teachers or ECEC teachers qualified to supervise trainee teachers when gaining their first teaching experience. They work in close cooperation with teacher training universities. As this practice has proven to be successful, the government is increasing investment in these schools and ECEC facilities by EUR 2.25 million in 2023. It is also granting additional funding of EUR 0.6 million to Linköping University for planning, coordination, development and follow-up of a pilot on new shorter supplementary pedagogical education as a pathway to the teaching profession (Regeringen, 2023a).

Sweden is looking into microcredentials, and how they can be integrated into the existing education offer. Since 2021, there is a pilot-project, Kompetenspasset¹⁴looking into microcredentials, a model for digitalised documentation of learning and establishing digital infrastructure to support it¹⁵. The project has also produced a guidebook on microcredentials and how they can be used to ensure the quality of employees, their career development and recruitment, education and development¹⁶.

6. Adult learning

Sweden has the highest proportion of adults (aged 25-64) participating in education and training in the EU. In 2022, the participation rate (in the last 4 weeks) increased to 36.2%, bouncing back after a drop in 2020 (28.6%, but still the highest in the EU). In 2022, participation (in the last 4 weeks) in education and training fell slightly in the less-qualified adult population (25.1% vs 26.5% in 2021), but remained well above the EU average (4.7%)¹⁷.

Some challenges persist over recent years. This is despite Sweden's adult learning system generally being recognised as well-developed and with high levels of participation. The challenges include skills shortages in the labour market, not fully utilising skills validation, lack of accessibility for disadvantaged and rural populations and a lack of data on adult education.

Over the last few years, Sweden has implemented several policies and initiatives focusing on improving the validation of skills. Municipalities must now offer a skills mapping before students start a course and skills validation after completion. Furthermore, an ordinance on validation has been introduced to further stimulate the uptake of validation. In addition, changes were made to the Education Act to further strengthen the labour market relevance of municipal adult education at the upper-secondary level through greater regional cooperation (mandatory cooperation with at least two other municipalities) and a greater focus on labour market needs in planning. Sweden has made significant additional funds available to increase the number of places in vocational adult education, including places for people with disabilities and financial incentives for individuals and employees to increase adult participation. Furthermore, the Swedish Recovery and Resilience plan is also supporting additional study places in regional adult vocational education in the years 2020-2023 (with a contribution of around EUR 92 million). Overall, there are ongoing incentives that aim to swiftly address the gaps identified. However, a greater emphasis on data collection on adult learning could improve the process of evidence-based policymaking.

There is a significant shortage of teachers and trainers in municipal adult education, especially given the ageing teacher population and the growing interest from learners, including learners with a migrant background. The most significant gaps are for vocational teachers, teachers for mathematics, nature-focused subjects and special education teachers (not distinguished for adult education). To remedy the shortage of qualified vocational teachers, the Swedish National Agency for Education offers grants to municipal adult education providers to promote teacher certification.