Evaluation of the reformed basic military training in the Swedish Armed Forces

From January 1, 2016, the voluntary basic military training in the Swedish Armed Forces was reformed. Essentially, the reform meant that the setup of the basic military training changed, as training aimed at a specific position within the military now became part of the basic training of the recruits. Approved recruits can now be employed by the military only after they have completed their position specific training. The purpose of this report was to develop a model for evaluating the reformed basic training based on the goals that were formulated at the political level, and to carry out an evaluation based on these goals. The political objectives underlying the reform were identified on the basis of relevant documentation, primarily from the 2014 Defense Commission, and validated by interviewing key individuals who were part of the political processes that led to the reformed basic military training. The evaluation has thus been restricted to include the following identified goals: o To have a larger fraction of those who begin the basic military training complete the full military training, including the training aimed at a specific position within the military. o To have the military training carried out in a more rational way, partly as a result of a change in regulation concerning working time during military training. o To have joint training within military units as a more clear part in the setup of the basic military training. The overall conclusion from the evaluation conducted was that the reformed basic military training in the Swedish Armed Forces has met its objectives, as formulated at the political level. Under the assumption of unchanged recruitment volumes, the reformed basic military training is likely to have led to a faster buildup of fully trained personnel in the military units, and thus a faster increase in the military capacity of these military units, relative to what was possible under the previous setup of the basic military training. The reformed setup of the basic military training also seems to have resulted in the training being conducted in a more rational way. Important explanations for the positive results are that the recruit's decision whether or not to take employment within the Swedish Armed Forces is now done after the recruit is fully trained, and that there now seems to be a greater clarity concerning content and time horizon of the military training. Data on which the evaluation was based has been limited which means that the conclusions in this report must be drawn with some caution. The Swedish Armed Forces therefore need to proceed with the evaluation on a larger scale as more data related to the reformed basic military training becomes available.