When the preschool empties, the care home is hiring: one Swedish town is retraining its teachers for elderly care

In Svedala, Sweden, falling birth rates have left preschool classrooms with spare staff just as elderly care homes face shortages. The municipality's answer is to retrain preschool workers as assistant nurses: a programme combining classroom study — anatomy, physiology — with hands-on shifts in care homes, led by specialist instructors. Participants say the two jobs rhyme more than you'd expect: both ask for patience and a commitment to looking after vulnerable people, though elderly care runs slower and carries more complex medical needs. Malmö and Lund are expanding similar healthcare training, as towns adapt their workforces to the population they actually have.

SDG 8 · Decent work and economic growth — Mechanism: institutional program