Skill Needs and Continuing Vocational Training in Sweden

The main purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how the amount of firmsponsored Continuing Vocational Training (CVT) provided in Sweden from 1999 onwards was influenced by institutional conditions. The Swedish labour market is characterised by a relatively large amount of publicly subsidised CVT. How this affects the incidence of firm-sponsored CVT ultimately depends on whether publicly financed training is a substitute for, a complement to or is independent from company training. Recent Swedish research and descriptive data suggest that elements of all three cases exist. If the two were complements, the phenomenon of underinvestment in CVT – which is frequently considered to exist – would be attenuated by the provision of publicly financed CVT. Support for this view hinges on the notion that public CVT evens out human capital accumulation within the labour force, that this in turn contributes to a compressed wage structure and that compressed wages have a positive influence on the provision of firm-sponsored CVT.