Adult education in Sweden in the wake of marketisation

Muhrman, Karolina; Andersson, Per

doi:10.1080/02660830.2021.1984060

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(25 reference statements)

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“…In 2020, about 50 percent of MAE was organised by publicly funded, independent schools, mainly owned by private companies (SNAE, 2021b). There are also high levels of internal marketisation in MAE, in terms of quality assurance work and competition with other providers or organisers, including public, municipal-owned organisers (Andersson & Muhrman, 2021a;Muhrman & Andersson, 2021). However, regardless of which actor organises education, it is always the municipality that is responsible for its quality and accessibility for citizens.…”

Section: Andersson Muhrmanmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study continues to analyse policy enactment (Ball et al, 2012;Braun et al, 2010) in Swedish adult education (Andersson & Muhrman, 2021a;Holmqvist et al, 2021;Muhrman & Andersson, 2021) with a focus on VET. From our perspective, the connection between education policy and practice is seen not as a rational process of implementation, but as a complex process of enactment that includes the interpretation and translation of policy into local practice (Ball et al, 2012).…”

Section: Policy Enactmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…have been identified as two central policy discourses. However, the master discourses that define Swedish adult education rather concern employability, skills supply, integration and not least marketisation (Muhrman & Andersson, 2021). These discourses put the labour market and VET in focus when the policy is interpreted, translated and enacted in the practice of adult education.…”

Section: Andersson Muhrmanmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Swedish Vocational Adult Education in the Wake of Marketisation

Andersson

Muhrman

2022

IJRVET

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Context: This study is about vocational education and training for adults within municipal adult education (MAE). Sweden has a long tradition of adult education, and has one of the world's highest proportions of participants in adult education. The Swedish education system is characterised by extensive marketisation with many private actors, particularly in adult education. The focus of this article is on the enactment of the market orientation in vocational adult education, with the purpose of showing how vocational adult education is organised in different ways in Swedish municipalities and how national adult education policy is enacted in local VET practices. Methods: The data consist of documents presenting relevant national policies for adult education, in particular on vocational education, and semi-structured interviews with adult education leaders in 20 municipalities. Findings: The findings show that MAE in Sweden has a clear labour market focus on offering education that corresponds to working life's labour requirements. Most municipalities have a shortage of staff in elderly care and childcare, which is why they offer a large number of training places in these professions. Many immigrants choose these training programmes to get a job. It is also common for municipalities to offer these training programmes in combination with SFI (Swedish for immigrants). This means that MAE fulfils an important function for integration. VET in MAE is offered as school-based training, apprenticeships or distance education. Offering VET at a distance makes it possible to provide a wider range of training programmes, and enables people who have difficulties participating in on-site training (due to commitments such as work or young children) to take part. Apprenticeship training provides work experience and often leads to employment. However, a weak interest in apprenticeship training among students and difficulties finding apprenticeship placements are examples of reasons why the number of apprenticeships is often very limited. Conclusion: Swedish MAE is characterised by flexibility and a broad supply of courses. However, there is a clear focus on certain vocational areas – mainly within the municipal organisation. This gives reason to question whether publicly funded VET for adults should mainly prepare participants for publicly funded labour-market sectors, or whether other sectors could also benefit from newly trained adults. Since vocational training within MAE is of great importance for immigrants' establishment in the labour market, there is a risk that unilateral investments in certain vocations will limit immigrants' career opportunities.

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Section: Andersson Muhrmanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Policy Enactmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Andersson Muhrmanmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Swedish Vocational Adult Education in the Wake of Marketisation

Andersson

Muhrman

2022

IJRVET

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“…In many cases, vocational MAE plays a significant role in integration and many students combine SFI studies with vocational education, which is expected to reduce the time needed to become established in the labour market (Andersson & Muhrman, 2019). The organisation of MAE also have difficulties since policy is decided on a national level where the individual needs of students are challenged by local practice, seeking to solve challenges regarding labour market and integration (Muhrman & Andersson, 2022).…”

Section: Context Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Being someone or doing something: How students in municipal adult education view their future vocation

Karlsson

2022

NJVET

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Being an adult, deciding what to do with your life, and trying to understand the consequences of educational choices can be difficult. Vocational education and training (VET) programmes within the Swedish municipal adult education (MAE) offer an opportunity to learn a vocation, and last 6–18 months. This study aims to explore how adult VET students perceive desirable vocational habitus and is based on 18 interviews comparing students from two vocational MAE programmes in assistant nursing and floor laying. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at the beginning of the students’ training and data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The results show that choosing a VET programme is a process of choosing what you want to do for work but also who you want to be. However, whether or not students see themselves as suitable is contrasted between how they perceive their future vocation and what the vocational community expects from them, which in turn affects their learning process and development of a vocational identity. Noticing the discrepancies between students’ perceptions and vocational expectations can both reduce the risk of losing students during training and reduces the risk of reproducing unequal ideals.

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“…For these individuals, Sweden offers adult education, which is a free of charge option to supplement upper secondary school or secondary training. Adult education in Sweden is delivered face-to-face or through distance education (Muhrman & Andersson, 2022). Adult learners often appreciate not having to travel the distance to the physical school (Gegenfurtner et al, 2018; Muhrman & Andersson, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adult learners’ perceptions of distance education

Åkerfeldt,

Bergdahl,

Hrastinski

2023

Journal of Adult and Continuing Education

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Research informing adult education teachers’ didactic practices in distance education is scarce. Approaching the adult learner’s perspectives on how distance education is perceived is key to informing future initiatives. This study explores adult learners’ perception of distance education, concentrating on aspects such as, social presence, course structure, and perceived learning and satisfaction. A survey was distributed to teachers ( n = 78) in five schools organising adult distance education. Findings show that teacher accessibility and course structure correlated positively with social presence and perceived learning and satisfaction. Overall, adult learners are satisfied with their distance teaching. A challenge facing adult distance education is to create a sense of social presence despite the high demand for flexibility. Thus, we explored learner perceptions of benefits and challenges in distance education and structured these into social, cognitive, spatio-temporal, emotional, and technical dimensions. Findings reveal that one challenge in the social dimension was a lack of connection with peers, and a benefit in the cognitive dimension referred to autonomy and self-regulation. These findings are important as educational institutions and policymakers may strive for high flexibility, which in turn may lead to lower group cohesion and a lack of social presence.

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Adult education in Sweden in the wake of marketisation

Cited by 18 publications

References 23 publications

Swedish Vocational Adult Education in the Wake of Marketisation

Swedish Vocational Adult Education in the Wake of Marketisation

Being someone or doing something: How students in municipal adult education view their future vocation

Adult learners’ perceptions of distance education

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