Why co-operate on vocational training?

Establishing a good education and research community is a central objective for the Nordic Region.

Just as the Nordic countries are close to each other in terms of geography, history and culture, the education systems also have several similarities and face common challenges.

We have a great deal to learn from each other. Through co-operation, we achieve better results that benefit our schools and other educational and training institutions, not to mention their pupils and apprentices.

The school is a vitally important social institution, one about which many people have strong opinions. Nordic co-operation on schools is characterised by consensus on the key points of principle.

In recent years, the co-operation has focused on quality in education, and on creating schools that provide everybody with the opportunity to complete their education or youth-training programmes.

Vision

A good basic education is a prerequisite for a successful educational career and a fulfilling life.

Improving the quality of education in schools is therefore a top Nordic priority.

The Council of Ministers for Education and Research (MR-U), which consists of the education ministers from the Nordic countries, has drawn up its own strategy for education and research for the period 2008–2010.

The strategy, known as 'The Nordic Region: A leading, dynamic knowledge and competence-based region', provides direction and specifies overarching objectives for Nordic co-operation on schools.

The objectives are:

• good schooling for all, as the basis for further education, social inclusion and a better quality of life
• to promote and fund the sharing of knowledge, competences and experiences in the areas of lifelong learning in the Nordic Region
• to enhance knowledge through increasing the proportion of youngsters who complete further and higher education
• a Nordic education system that encourages the positive inclusion of people with a different cultural background
• to promote co-operation between schools and working life through vocational training and the dissemination of life skills
• to promote high-quality Nordic teacher training
• to promote co-operation on educational research and the dissemination of the results of research on teaching.

Outcomes

Nordic co-operation on schools facilitates the sharing of experiences between educational authorities, researchers and school principals and teachers in the five Nordic countries and the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland.

Every year, a number of conferences, seminars and meetings are held on central political and pedagogic questions and themes. These lead to further reports and studies, the outcomes of which are then discussed and followed up.

Tangible projects and programmes

• Nordplus

Nordplus , the Nordic Council of Ministers' largest education and training programme, is a framework programme comprising four sub-programmes directed at different target groups.

The programme funds mobility, projects and networks, and is open to institutions and organisations that work on education and training.

The programme covers the five Nordic countries, the three autonomous territories – the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland – and the Baltic States Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

• Nordplus junior

Nordplus Junior covers pre-school, primary and secondary schools and youth training.

The programme funds, for example, mobility for classes or pupils at basic level and in youth training; individual pupil mobility (e.g. workplace exchanges for pupils in both vocational training and theoretical programmes); mobility for teachers and other pedagogic staff in pre-school, primary and secondary schools and youth training; networking activities; and development projects.

• The upper-secondary school agreement

The upper-secondary agreement commits the Nordic countries to provide people from the other countries in the Region with access to education at advanced schooling level (i.e. entrance qualifications for higher education and vocational training programmes) on the same terms as the country's own citizens.

The globalisation project “Project plan for excellent training for young people and adults”

One of the 14 globalisation projects set in motion through Nordic co-operation is associated with basic education.

The project's over-arching objective is to get more young people to complete post-school education (youth training), and, as per the principle of lifelong learning, to promote the importance of adult education for both personal development and the further development of society and the workplace.

The project consists of four sub-initiatives:

• the study and sharing of experiences about work in order to increase the number of young people who complete youth training;
• development work in entrepreneurship;
• development of adults' basic skills;
• the establishment of a learning and dialogue forum.

The purpose of the forum is to share experiences and ideas, as well as to profile and draw attention to the themes under discussion.

• Nordic Steering Group for School Co-operation

The Nordic Steering Group for School Co-operation (NSS) is a policy, advisory and executive organ of the Council of Ministers.

Its activities involve the pre-school sector, primary and secondary schools and further education (both general and vocational).

The co-operation will build upon and promote school development, in the Nordic countries and beyond, in prioritised areas that generate added Nordic value.