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 and vocational training is characterised by consensus on the key points of principle. In recent years, this co-operation has focused on quality in education, and on creating schools that provide everybody with the opportunity to complete vocational or youth-training programmes.

Vision

Basic education is the foundation for achieving the political goals and for breaking the negative social heritage. The basis for increasing the number of youngsters who complete further and higher education is laid in primary and secondary schooling. Schools and vocational training encourage the positive inclusion of individuals and the future welfare and economic growth of society.

The Council of Ministers for Education and Research, which consists of the education ministers from the Nordic countries, has drawn up its own strategy for education and research for the period 2011–-2013. The strategy, known as 'Knowledge of green growth and welfare', provides direction and specifies overarching objectives for Nordic co-operation on schools and vocational training.

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.

Reports on the schools sector.

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 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.

Craft and vocational training

As part of the co-operation on schools, a working group has been set up to look at the challenges associated with craft and vocational training in the Nordic countries.

Several initiatives have been implemented at European level to increase transparency, facilitate opportunities for mobility and improve the quality of training, all of which takes place within the framework of the “Copenhagen Process”. Examples of these initiatives include the credit-transfer system ECVET, the mobility tool Europass and the quality network EQAVET, as well as the implementation of the European framework for qualifications (EQF) and the development of the national framework (NQF).

At Nordic level, efforts are being made to underpin the national decision-making processes associated with the Copenhagen Process, and to improve knowledge among the education authorities about the form and development of vocational training in the Nordic countries.

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 “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 overarching goal is to encourage more young people than today to complete an education after basic school.

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; a study of the effects of literacy teaching for adults; and 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 body 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.