Guidance System in Sweden

OVERVIEW

In Sweden, career guidance is provided throughout the entire educational system, as well as within activities organised by the Public Employment Service (PES) and Swedish job security and transition councils and foundations.

• The Swedish Education Act states that students in schools and adult education have the right to receive career guidance based on their needs, from trained guidance counsellors. Information and guidance services are typically provided within schools or other educational institutions, but some municipalities also offer guidance through external, centralised guidance centres.
• The Higher Education Ordinance stipulates that university students should have access to educational guidance and career orientation. Universities are also responsible for facilitating students' transition into working life. Guidance support is offered both centrally and at the departmental level.
• Career guidance is a core part of PES’s mission and is regulated by several ordinances. For job seekers, guidance is primarily provided by private actors, who are contracted and monitored by PES.
• Since 2022, a transitions and skills support package has provided individuals established in the labour market with access to basic support for career transitions, including career guidance. The focus is on personalised support tailored to each individual's needs and opportunities.

Guidance and information services are also available through publicly funded web platforms. The national education portal Utbildningsguiden provides information for students, parents, and professionals about all levels of education. Studera.nu offers information about higher education for Swedish citizens and prospective students. The Swedish Public Employment Service provides descriptions of various professions and labour market forecasts.

Local, regional, and national career fairs are regularly organised across Sweden for students preparing to take their next steps in education or employment. Individual career guidance is often available during these events.

POLICY

As could be seen above, the mission to offer guidance services is regulated by law. In general, career guidance is part of broader education and employment initiatives and usually not treated as a political area of its own. The two ministries involved are the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Employment. Here are the most recent initiatives, with focus on guidance:

In 2017, a government-initiated review of career guidance for the labour market was conducted. It included measures to enhance the career guidance services provided by the Swedish Public Employment Service (PES, Arbetsförmedlingen). As a result, PES developed an internal strategy for career guidance (in Swedish) to improve its services.

In 2018, the Swedish government appointed an inquiry committee to propose improvements to guidance services in schools. The committee's mandate was to explore ways to reduce the impact of gender, social background, and disabilities on students’ educational and career choices. Additionally, it analysed how career guidance could be strengthened in schools and how digital guidance services could be developed. The resulting Swedish Government Official Report (in Swedish) proposed several key reforms:

• A clearer definition of guidance, to be officially referred to as "career guidance."
• Guaranteed access for students to individual career guidance.
• Integration of career guidance perspectives across various school subjects.
• Introduction of a new compulsory course, called “Future Choice”, with allocated time in compulsory school.
• Expansion of digital career guidance services.

Between 2019 and 2021, Sweden launched a government-initiated collaboration program involving national agencies. This initiative included joint efforts to enhance career guidance as part of skills development and lifelong learning. One key outcome was the creation of a common digital entry point for individuals to access career guidance tools and services.

In 2022, these efforts continued under the Governmental cooperation for skills supply and lifelong learning (MSV KLL). Several national agencies were tasked by the government to collaborate on ensuring a well-functioning skills supply system. A working group on career guidance was established, consisting of representatives from both national agencies and social partners. The group identified a need to elevate lifelong guidance to a strategic policy level and, in 2024, submitted a report to the Government Offices. The report emphasised lifelong guidance as a key factor in societal development and presented recommendations at three levels:

1. Strengthening lifelong guidance in Sweden at the policy level.
2. Expanding access to lifelong guidance across all sectors.
3. Improving the quality of career guidance services.

The so-called Transition package for improved flexibility, adaptability, and security in the labour market that was launched in 2022 is based on an agreement between trade unions and employers in the private sector. It provides all employees with better opportunities for career transitions and skills development throughout their working lives, while also strengthening Sweden's competitiveness. Now also individuals established in the labour market have access to basic support for career transitions, including career guidance. The package also includes a study allowance for retraining and further education. These services are provided by the job security and transition councils, which have become a new employer for Swedish guidance practitioners.

2024-2025 discussions on career guidance in Sweden are focused on skills supply – pointing out the digital and green transitions as well as guiding more people towards STEM educations. The government is now taking more initiatives for the re-skilling and upskilling of adults. A new form of vocational education at upper secondary level for adults has been initiated and higher education institutions have been given a task to investigate their condition to develop a flexible and qualified range of courses and programmes to support adults in transition.

SERVICES AND PRACTICES

Guidance in schools (including adult education)

The Swedish National Agency for Education is the central administrative authority overseeing Sweden's public school system for children, young people, and adults. While it operates independently based on guidelines from the Ministry of Education, municipalities hold the primary responsibility for career guidance in schools. They have significant autonomy in shaping their guidance and counseling services, as long as they align with national curricula and school regulations.

The Swedish Schools Inspectorate (Skolinspektionen) conducts regular evaluations of all municipal and independent schools, from preschool to adult education, including their career guidance services.

Approximately 2,000 guidance counsellors are employed within the Swedish school system, many of whom work across multiple schools. They provide both individual counselling and group sessions for students.

Although there are no mandatory career education lessons, counsellors occasionally conduct lessons and information sessions in both compulsory and upper secondary schools. These sessions often support students in making key educational and career decisions.

For example:

• Most ninth-grade students have personal interviews with their guidance counsellor to discuss their future plans and upper secondary school program choices.
• Many eighth- and ninth-grade students meet with their guidance counsellor before participating in their work experience week (PRAO).

There is ongoing work to better integrate career guidance into teaching and to establish it as a shared responsibility across the entire school community rather than solely the duty of guidance counsellors.

Guidance at Universities

The Higher Education Institutions also enjoy a great deal of freedom within the framework of the regulations laid down by the Government. The institutions themselves decide how to plan their operations in the area of guidance and counselling. Two main national agencies are relevant in this area. The Swedish Council for Higher Education (Universitets- och högskolerådet, UHR) acts as The National Agency for Erasmus+, coordinates admissions to Higher Education institusions and evaluates foreign qualifications.  As a result, guidance counsellors are an important target group for the Agency. The Swedish Higher Education Authority (Universitetskanslersämbetet) reviews the quality of higher education and monitors how efficiently the higher education institutions operate. They have the possibility to review guidance services at University level.

There are about 50 university colleges, universities and independent higher education providers. No official statistics on the number of guidance counsellors at University level are available, but a rough estimation is that approx. 700 experts work with providing guidance services at higher education institutions. Guidance services at universities are organised centrally (for first contacts), at departments and/or faculty level (study counselling) and at career centres (career choices, summer jobs, trainee vacancies etc).

Guidance in the labour market

Also the counselling services for those in search of work are mainly designed by the providers in accordance with the guidelines from the Swedish Public Employment Service Head Office. The PES decides on appropriate services/activities for each individual. 

The career guidance that offered through the Employment Service is divided into three levels:

1. Career guidance information. Information on occupations, education and labour market prospects with the opportunity to ask and receive answers to questions of a general nature. The information is available to all individuals and is mainly given via digital channels.
2. Career orientation. It should supplement the information and give the individual the opportunity to get answers to more person-specific questions about education and the labour market – support for orientation
3. At the third level qualified career guidance offers systematic and process-oriented support, so that the individual becomes more aware of his own circumstances and can consider them against the demands and opportunities of the labour market to increases the individual's competence to make well-considered choices

Also the Job security and transiton councils design their own career guidance support for those established in the labour market. They focus is on personalised support tailored to each individual's needs and possibilities. Examples of intervention areas: • Assessment of skills and qualities • Motivational conversations • Assistance in finding and applying for jobs • Interview coaching • Liaising with employers • Workplace visits and work-based activities • Educational and career guidance

TRAINING

The training opportunities addressed to guidance counsellors in Sweden are offered both as basic academic education, in-service training and as various further training opportunities;

Academic education:

The Bachelor programme, 180 ECTS, leading to a Bachelor of Arts in Study and Career Guidance is offered at three universities in Sweden;

• Malmö University (Only in Swedish)
• Stockholm University (Only in Swedish)
• Umeå University (Only in Swedish)

The education starts every autumn, both on campus and on distance. The focus of the degree is on theory and practice of career counselling. It also includes social sciences; knowledge of society, working life and education; behavioural sciences; knowledge of psychology, education and sociology. In addition, the education includes three periods of placements, mainly in schools, but also in other fields.

There is also a possibility to engage in further studies, in a Master´s Programme in Pedagogics with a focus on career development and guidance, 120 ECTS

In-service training provided by the respective employer:

• In-service training for study counsellors at universities – employees with a general academic degree, working as study counsellors, get training in guidance theory and practice
• In-service training for the employees working with guidance at the Public Employment Offices. Different modules in guidance methods and practices.

Further training aimed at guidance practitioners:

• Training provided by the employer: further training and information days for guidance practitioners in municipalities on current topics and developments of relevance to the guidance community.
• Competence development provided by National Agencies: trainings, seminars, conferences organised for guidance practitioners about the expert areas of the different stakeholders, and in connection to special missions and projects.
• Competence development provided by interest organisations, such as the National Union for Teachers and the Swedish Association for Guidance Counsellors.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Research in the career guidance field is conducted at all the above mentioned institutions, offering career guidance education. For example, at the Department of Education and Didactics at Stockholm university, research is conducted on the following themes:

• The pedagogy of coaching and guidance
• Dialogicity and power in guidance conversations
• Career guidance and political governance
• Whiteness, gender, and career development in higher education
• Justice, recognition, and the creation of differences in guidance
• Guidance and disability

There is also the research school FinnFram focused on career learning, career guidance, and transitions between school, further education, and work. The research school is organised in collaboration between Umeå, Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö universities and includes nine doctoral students. The program will run until 2026.

Based on the curriculum's principle of "quality in study and career guidance – the responsibility of the entire school”, the first goal of the school is to develop teacher educators' ability to analyse to what extent and how career guidance is directly or indirectly involved in all school activities. The second goal of the research school is to make a substantial contribution to the international research field on career learning, guidance, and transitions between school, further education, and work.

ETHICS

The Swedish Association of Guidance Counsellors (Sveriges Vägledarförening, SAGC) is a professional association for guidance counsellors from all sectors, including schools, adult education, higher education and employment services. SAGC has developed a Declaration of Ethics to provide support for those working to provide guidance as well as those who seek or require guidance.

According to the declaration guidance often takes place in contexts where there could be a conflict between the interests of the individual and the interests of society/organisations, and where differing needs and obligations need to be considered and compared. The ethical guidelines are meant to support ethical consideration about such dilemmas.

The Declaration of Ethics is based on the ethical values that may be found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the EU resolution on guidance 9286/04 and the OECD (2007) Career Guidance - Handbook for Decision Makers.

The Association has also appointed a Council of Ethics, which is to develop and keep track of issues concerning the ethics of guidance. The Council of Ethics may also be of assistance when dilemmas arise and offer support when decisions are particularly difficult.

The Swedish Teachers’ Union is a trade union for teachers and study and career counsellors.