Transformations and roles (till)

When expressing career appointments, advancements, or future professions, Swedish uses the preposition till (to/as) followed by a bare noun (no en/ett and no definite ending).

Use verbs like utnämna (to appoint) or befordra (to promote):

The government appointed her ambassador.
Regeringen utnämnde henne till ambassadör.
The manager promised to promote me to CEO.
Chefen lovade att befordra mig till vd.

The same structure applies with välja (to choose or elect):

We chose her as CEO because she is smart.
Vi valde henne till vd eftersom hon är smart.

Training for a Profession

For career preparation, use the reflexive verb utbilda sig (to train) or the informal plugga (to study) with till:

Are you training to be a specialist?
Utbildar du dig till specialist?
He is sitting and studying to be a prosecutor.
Han sitter och pluggar till åklagare.

When asking what someone is studying to be, till moves to the end of the question:

What are you training to be?
Vad utbildar du dig till?

Career Transformations

To express a journey from one role to another, pair från (from) with till (to). Both nouns remain bare:

She went from student to expert.
Hon gick från student till expert.