Norway: The government wants to make secondary and tertiary education more relevant to the labour market

A new white paper on the Norwegian education system, “The Perspective Paper” (“Utsynsmeldingen”), emphasizes the need for an education providing people with the skills that society needs for the green transition, a highly productive working life and good welfare services in the future.
Among the several challenges, the Norwegian Government has identified the following:
The skills gap and the recruitment problems are largest in the sectors of technology, craftsmen, health and education,
Due to the ageing of the population, the need for skilled workers in the health sector will increase,
44 per cent of the adults who are not in work have only completed primary education.
The green transition will create needs for expertise in various sectors, among which technology.
To cope with this, some of the Norwegian Government’s proposals are to:
steer the educational pathways of pupils and students in secondary and tertiary education in line with the need of skills in the labour market,
improve the supply of flexible and de-centralized tertiary vocational education and higher education,
improve the cooperation between labour market authorities and counties, who are responsible for the secondary education.
Source: Eurydice Unit Norway