Foreword

Over recent years, Sweden has committed itself to an ambitious reform programme to enhance involvement of social partners in vocational education and training (VET), to increase provision of work-based learning within VET programmes and to promote apprenticeship. The Swedish VET system has many strengths. Sweden has a strong evaluation culture ensuring that policy is based on solid evidence upper-secondary VET is provided in a flexible way, allowing individuals to build on their previous experience and knowledge, and Higher Vocational Education and Training launched in 2002 has filled a gap in the market for professional post-secondary qualifications and has been expanding. But many challenges remain. Numerous sectors are grappling with labour shortages increasing pressure on VET to better match provision to the changing demand for skills. The Swedish VET system also needs to respond to an increasingly diverse cohort of learners following a recent arrival of humanitarian migrants.