The Expanding Learning Enterprise in Sweden. A Study of the Education and Training of the Swedish Labour Force Forming Part of a Comparative Survey Commissioned by CERI, Center for Educational Research and Innovation at the OECD.

Overview & Synopsis

Sweden had, according to data gathered between 1986 and 1988, 8.4 million inhabitants, with a labor force of 4.4 million people. Its unemployment level was less than 2 percent. The level of educational investment was 7.5 percent of the gross national product (GNP), with 10.5 percent of the investment in adult education. Adult education in Sweden consists of study circles, folk high schools or residential colleges for adults, adult basic education, municipal adult education, Swedish for immigrants, labor market education, trade union education, inservice training, distance education, and special provisions for disabled adults. Some 50 percent of Swedes participate in adult education, with half of the participation in inservice training and staff development programs. The volume of employer-sponsored programs increased 5.7 percent between 1986 and 1987 when measured by days of education and 3 percent when measured by number of participants. Swedes with more formal education participate more in adult education. (The report includes a discussion of policy alternatives, 58 references, a reprint of a government report on the education and training of the labor force in 1986 and 1987, and a reprint of a working draft of a paper from the Swedish National Board of Education, "Assessing Invisible Colleges: Comments on the Evaluation of Human Resource Development Investments.") (CML)