State subsidy for upper secondary apprenticeship education

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Ordinance (2011:947) on state subsidy for upper secondary apprenticeship education (Förordning (2011:947) om statsbidrag för gymnasial lärlingsutbildning)

To reimburse extra costs to employers taking on apprentices

Swedish National Agency for Education is responsible for the overall management, monitoring and evaluation of the instrument as well as day-to-day operation.

All companies

The scheme funds only apprenticeship. It applies to upper secondary apprenticeship

State

The maximum funding that a company may receive: approx. EUR 5,995 per apprentice per year (as of 2017). The amount may vary each semester.

The education provider (the school) applies for the subsidy from the state. Of the received sum, up to approx. EIR 1,000 may be used by the school to develop its apprenticeship programmes. The rest of the money must be disbursed to the employer(s) of the apprentice. Furthermore, the employer may receive an additional sum of up to approx. EUR 1,000 per apprentice per year if the on-the-job instructor of the apprentice has undergone an instructor training approved by the National Agency for Education. The amount paid by the state may fall short of the numbers indicated above, if the number of subsidy applications surpasses the earmarked money available.

Funds are disbursed to all eligible applicants on the basis of the legal entitlement.

The instrument offers a general reimbursement for employers to cover (some of the) costs of taking on an apprentice. The funding is not earmarked to cover any particular type of costs.

For the spring semester 2017, the Swedish National Agency for Education granted a total sum of nearly EUR 25.3 million. For the autumn semester 2016, the sum was EUR 24.3 million. The estimated annual spending therefore lands at approx. EUR 50 million (exchange rate SEK 1 = EUR 0.104273, 11 July 2017).
No EU funds involved.

The actual data on the number of beneficiary companies is not available.

In 2016, approx. 10,000 students were enrolled as apprentices. Considering that some companies took on more than one apprentice and that some companies did for various reasons not receive the benefit, the very rough estimate could land at approximately 5,000 companies.

Ingrid Berglund, Gunilla Höjlund, Per Kristmansson & Enni Paul (2014).
Arbetsgivarnas användning av statsbidrag för gymnasial lärlingsutbildning och deras erfarenheter av att ta emot gymnasiala lärlingselever. The Swedish National Agency for Education, Diarienummer 79-2013-:668.
https://www.skolverket.se/polopoly_fs/1.213328!/Rapport-statsbidrag-gym…

The subsidy does not seem to be either a strong motivator or a necessity for companies to take or not to take on apprentices: only 3% of employers report the subsidy to be a prerequisite for them to do so, and one third report the subsidy to impact this decision.
The instrument is too new for effects in terms of labour market outcomes to be clearly discerned.

In 2014, the subsidy was qualified to be obtainable when sufficient resources are available. Prioritisation is done according to geographical considerations and according to the efficiency of the provided subsidy in terms of number of students or the availability of the education.

Swedish National Agency for Education,
https://www.skolverket.se/

Swedish National Agency for Education, ’Statsbidrag för gymnasial lärlingsutbildning’,
https://www.skolverket.se/skolutveckling/statsbidrag/yrkesutbildning/gy…;

Swedish National Agency for Education, ’Statsbidrag för gymnasial lärlingsutbildning för hösten 2016’, Diarienummer 2016:1351,
https://www.skolverket.se/polopoly_fs/1.257148!/Beslut%20gymnasial%20l%…

Ingrid Berglund, Gunilla Höjlund, Per Kristmansson & Enni Paul (2014).
Arbetsgivarnas användning av statsbidrag för gymnasial lärlingsutbildning och deras erfarenheter av att ta emot gymnasiala lärlingselever.

Swedish National Agency for Education, Diarienummer 79-2013-:668.
https://www.skolverket.se/polopoly_fs/1.213328!/Rapport-statsbidrag-gym…