Steering competence development in elderly care – a service user perspective

Abstract

The article, which is of a tentative character, discusses how new steering principles in care work for elderly may affect the investment and interest in training among employers. Two new steering principles are expanding in care work, a free choice model and user-driven organisation. I discuss how these new steering principles may lead to a decreasing interest in competence development of the employees. Instead, the focus among the employers may be on the recruitment of appropriate individuals. I have used two kinds of data. One is based on an oversight of research journals from the Nordic countries. Another kind of data is based on a national change programme in Sweden which intended to increase the quality of care work through competence development of the employees.