Education sector | Britain is seeing the establishment of free schools patterned after the Swedish model for non-selective, state-funded independent schools. Generally, the Swedish model involves tax funding of a unit grant to schools for each student attending, regardless whether the school is run by the local government or privately, as long as the school meets teaching and open selection criteria enforced by the Swedish National Agency for Education. Inspired by this model, the British conservative led government has passed a similar legal structure for schools in the UK, which can be an opening for Swedish private school providers to export their know-how.

LAS| The 2008 financial crisis impacted many companies negatively, especially in the manufacturing sector, forcing many employees into redundancy. But the order of termination rules in the Swedish Employment Act had a greater negative affect on women’s employment compared to men in these redundancies.

Employment growth| Total employment in private care providers in Sweden has nearly doubled since 2000. And, privately employed care workers continue to grow in number, despite the general decrease in employment for health care, schools, and child and elderly care. These are findings culled from Statistics Sweden information by the Association of Private Care Providers.