No to further education

MYH, the Swedish Institute of Vocational Education and Training, has unfortunately decided to reject applications for training courses for service technicians with a focus on Connected Homes which were submitted in June, both for Lund and Stockholm. This is despite the fact that 75% of the first class that will be examined in January 2022 have already found jobs.

The justification for the decision is solely based on the fact that they prioritized other education programs.

Chapter 5, Section 5 of the YHF states that the authority for the University of Applied Sciences, when allocating state grants or special funds, shall take into account in particular the degree to which a training course qualitatively and quantitatively meets the needs of working life for qualified labour, is financed by working life and has a regional or national location that is appropriate in terms of the needs of working life. The authority shall also take into account the results of supervision, quality review and follow-up in its assessment.

In an overall assessment of the application, the authority decides not to award you a state grant because other education programs are more in line with Chapter 5, Section 5 of the YHF. In this year's application round, the authority has prioritized other education programs within other educational areas.

The requirements in Chapter 5, Section 5 of the YHF Ordinance on Polytechnics are therefore not met to the same extent as for other applied education programs, and this means that your application will not be granted.

It is remarkable that they are making this priority before the first class has been graduated. The fact that they are so clearly prioritizing other areas of education is concerning to us because they believe that our education is in the wrong area of education.

APPLiA and our training partner are now in dialogue with the responsible administrator to clarify how we can proceed to ensure the need for service technicians over time.

One alternative that we are working on is to offer a shorter YH education, where part of the existing education is used and offered as skills development for those already working.

We will return with more information as soon as we know if it is possible.

Matts Spångberg, Industry Manager/CEO

Background

APPLiA is driving the issue of training more service technicians for our industry. The need for more service technicians continues to increase, partly due to the fact that many technicians are approaching retirement age and partly due to new technology that means that technicians with different skills are in demand as a result of more connected products and complex home networks, where our household products must be securely connected together with consumers' other products.

We also see a political will for more products to be repaired, where new legislation such as ecodesign, increased RUT deductions and chemicals tax is aimed at increased repairability and reduced consumption.

During a 5-year period in the early 2010s, APPLiA ran YH training courses and in 2019, APPLiA applied to start a YH training course for service technicians as the need for technicians continued to increase. The training was granted and the first class of service engineers with a focus on Connected Homes will graduate in January 2021 after completing a 1.5-year education. The vocational school is a post-secondary education level with a focus on being able to enter employment directly in companies.

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