Adult Education and Training

Adult general education and vocational education and training for adults in Iceland range from non-formal education to qualifying general education and continuing vocational training. It covers both publicly funded, workplace or union funded as well as well as private education programmes and courses. There is a long-standing tradition of improving the competences of the workforce beyond compulsory stages of education and the Icelandic system is generally diverse, with many options, programmes and modes of study serving the needs of many different groups. Some offer second chances so that young adults and lifelong learners can return to education and training later in life with the syllabus and examinations are adapted to the experience, interest and the prior formal and non-formal learning of the individual. In many cases, the programmes are structured in such a way that the level of qualification can be compared to levels in the mainstream education system.

Iceland is above the EU’s benchmark for the proportion of adults (25-64) participating in education and training, according to the 2019 EU Labour Force Survey (EU LDS). Against the EU-27 average of 10.8% of adults participating in education and training during the four weeks prior to the survey of 2019, this rate stood at 22.2 % for Iceland.

Source:  Eurostat (EU LFS).  Online data code: [trng_lfse_01]