The Swedish Occupational and Work Environment Committee (Bevakningsbranschens Yrkes- och Arbetsmiljönämnd - BYA) is a non-profit organisation which is since 15 years jointly operated by the Swedish Security Industry Association “Säkerhetsföretagen” and the Swedish Transport Workers’ Union.

The BYA has an Executive Board and working committees with representation from the entire industry. It is regulated and financed by the sectoral Collective Agreement, and plays an important role in collaborating with law enforcement and competent authorities.

The mission of BYA is to raise standards in the industry by improving security officers’ qualifications and competencies, but also to promote qualitative working conditions and long-term improvement of the image of the security officers’ work through information and debate.

Training at the BYA provides basic, repetitive, special and additional training for security workers. It further works on improving the working environment, including the production of guidelines and dedicated personnel. The organisation is financed by a fee, based on a percentage of the annual payroll of each security company, regulated in the Collective Agreement. It usually trains around 10,000 students per year, including 1,500 students for initial, basic training.

The delegation of the CoESS Cohesion, led by Committee Chairman Riho Lutter (Estonian Security Association) learned more about the current situation of private security in Sweden, particularly in the face of rising crime rates and the Russian war against Ukraine – demanding more tasks and qualification of private security officers respectively. Like in many countries, the private security industry also suffers from labour shortages in Sweden. But across Europe, the BYA is a best practice example of how training can enhance the attractiveness of the sector – e.g. the drop-out rates of apprentices during the basic training are notoriously low in Sweden. The BYA was therefore also promoted by the European Sectoral Social Partners, CoESS and UNI Europa, as a best practice example on how to tackle labour shortages in the sector as part of the INTEL project (see more at www.securityskills.eu).