Board training in Sweden.

What language are the board courses taught in?

8 of these courses record their teaching language in the catalog. The catalog records a teaching language for 8 of them, and 5 of those are Swedish. 3 are recorded as taught in English.

The rest record no language at all, so the course page, and then the provider, is where to settle it. Among the courses that do say, Swedish is the most common teaching language.

The language is worth checking before you sign up, and it is the piece of information most often missing. A Swedish provider writing for a Swedish market rarely has a reason to spell out that teaching is in Swedish, so the field stays empty even when the answer is obvious. The figures above are what the catalog actually holds, including how much of it holds nothing.

The boardroom is where this question is least obvious. Several of the courses on this page have English titles and English content, set by Swedish providers for Swedish companies, because the vocabulary of corporate governance is largely English: board, chair, non-executive director, governance. A course having an English name does not mean it is taught in English, and the other way round. The course page, and then the provider, is where to settle it.

What is board training?

A course that prepares you to sit on, or chair, a company board. It covers what the board is responsible for, how the work is organised over a financial year, and where the line runs between the board’s task and that of the executive management.

The board’s responsibility is governed by the Swedish Companies Act (aktiebolagslagen), and it is a personal responsibility. That is also why this kind of course exists as a field of its own rather than as part of a general leadership course: a manager who gets it wrong answers to their employer, a board member answers in person. The content of the courses on this page follows that difference.

The field covers several different things, and the course cards below show which kind each course is. Some are aimed at people about to take their first board seat. Some are aimed at the chair, who has a role and a responsibility of their own for making sure the board’s work gets done. Some are narrow and take up a single area the board is now expected to know something about, such as sustainability reporting or digital security. And some are tailored for one company’s board and carry that company’s name in the title.

Which board courses are in the catalog right now?

Right now over 40 courses, from over 10 providers. The list on this page is that whole set, not a selection, and it is sorted by how many certificates each course has issued.

The page shows the courses whose names are about board work. It is a deliberately narrow selection: matches are read from the course title and not from the provider’s marketing text, because marketing text mentions all sorts of things and so pulls in courses that do not belong here. The price of that precision is that a course about board work with a completely different name is not included.

The number changes when the catalog changes. No figure on this page is written into the code; every figure is read from the catalog when the page is shown, so what is written here is what applies now.

Who runs the board courses?

Over 10 providers in the catalog run at least one. The largest are Michael Berglund (over 10 courses), Novare Leadership (6) and deb - diverse executive boards (5).

The courses come from over 10 providers, and each provider puts its own name on every certificate it issues. The full list is further down the page, with the number of courses and the number of certificates issued for each, and every provider’s name links to the provider’s own page in the catalog.

The mix of providers says something about what you are choosing between. Here are industry bodies whose purpose is the board question itself, recruitment firms that train the board members they also place, business schools with executive programmes, and a couple of companies that run the training in house for a single group. The last ones are listed like any other course, because they issue real certificates to real participants, but in practice they are closed to outsiders. The provider’s name on the course card is the quickest way to see which kind you are looking at.

Are the board courses taught at a distance or on site?

The catalog records a format for 8 of the courses here: 3 online, 1 blended and 4 on site. Over 30 courses record no format.

The format is the piece of information missing most often of all in the catalog, and that applies to the whole catalog and not only this page. Where the provider has filled in the field, the format is on the course card. Where it is not filled in, nothing shows rather than a guess.

It is also worth knowing that board training is one of the fields where meeting in person is part of the content rather than a formality. Much of the value is the others in the room, who sit on other boards and have had the same problems. A course recorded as on site is often so for that reason.

How long are the board courses?

5 of the courses record how long they run, and the length is then on the course card. The rest record no length at all.

The range in this field is wide and it shows in the list. A short course for board secretaries can be one day. A certification programme for board members can be several sessions over a term, with homework and an exam at the end. An executive programme can stretch over an academic year.

The length is on the course card where the provider has filled it in, and the course page carries the provider’s own description of the format. Where the length is not filled in, the provider is the only reliable source.

Is any of the board courses a vocational college programme with CSN?

None of the courses here is a vocational college (yrkeshögskola) course, so Swedish student finance (CSN) does not apply to any of them.

Yrkeshögskolan is Sweden’s state regulated higher vocational education. A YH programme is built together with employers, runs one to two years, includes a workplace placement (LIA) and gives the right to Swedish student finance from CSN. It is the only form on Upskill where CSN can apply at all.

Board training sits almost entirely outside that system, and that is logical: a board member is rarely at the start of their working life. The courses here are sold instead to people who already have a board seat or are about to get one, and are most often paid for by the company. The catalog shows no prices, so what a course costs is a question for the provider.

What does a verified certificate from a board course prove?

That the provider named on the certificate issued it to the person named on it, and that this can be checked without phoning anyone. Every certificate in this catalog is issued through TRUE, so whoever is shown the certificate can follow it back to the provider and see for themselves.

It does not measure how good the course was, and no verification technology can. What goes away is the other problem: a line on a CV that nobody ever checks, from a course that may never have taken place. Together they have issued over 3,000 certificates. Over 30 courses have issued at least one, and the rest have not issued any yet. The oldest certificate on this page was issued in 2022.

The catalog records no certificate type for the courses on this page, so the words diploma, certificate and certification appear here as the provider has used them in its own title and not as a category we have set. What an individual certificate is called and what it covers is on the course page and on the certificate itself.

How do I choose between the board courses?

Start with the role you are going to fill, not with the provider’s name. A course for a new board member, one for a chair and one for a board secretary are three different courses even when they come from the same provider, and the title on the course card tells you which it is.

Two questions to the provider usually settle the rest, and neither can be answered from this page. The first is what the course assumes you already know, because several of the programmes here are built for people who have sat on a board before. The second is what it costs, because the catalog holds no prices.

The number of certificates issued, shown on every course card, is the only comparable figure this page has to offer. It tells you how many have actually completed the course and received a certificate through TRUE. It says nothing about quality, and a new course will naturally have a low figure.