Reference year 2023
Version 2023 - Drafted by Margareth Haukås, Senior adviser, HK-dir Norway - Member of Cedefop Community of apprenticeship experts for Norway
“Act of 17 July 1998 no. 61 relating to Primary and Secondary Education and Training (the Education Act)”. Last amended 30.05.2022.
The same legal basis applies to all apprenticeship variations.
The “Reform 94” formally integrated the apprenticeship system in upper secondary education. The main features of Reform 94 were based on a Green Paper (the “Blegen Committee” - 1991) and a “Joint Declaration on vocational education and training in schools and workplaces” (1990), signed by The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO).
The main model is two-year school-based learning followed by a two-year work-based learning in an enterprise (‘2+2 model’).
Content changes were introduced with the Knowledge Promotion Reform in 2006 and the Subject Renewal in 2020.
With the Completion Reform from 2021, changes in the apprenticeship schemes will be implemented. A right to apprenticeship is one of the measures that will be considered. Another measure is the introduction of the right to complete a programme at the individual apprentice’s pace.
Apprenticeships as such are not defined but there is a definition of ‘apprentice’ in the Education Act, § 3-4, “Chapter 4. Upper secondary education and training in enterprises”.
It reads that an apprentice is someone who has signed a contract in view of obtaining a trade certificate or a journeyman’s certificate within a trade where in-company training is offered. Otherwise, see question 3 below on apprenticeship variations and vocational programmes integrated in education at upper secondary level.
https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1998-07-17-61#KAPITTEL_4
Apprenticeships are offered in the context of upper secondary, vocational programmes (Videregående opplæring, yrkesfaglige utdanningsprogram), at EQF level 4, ISCED level 353.
The apprenticeship model, as we know it today, was introduced with the Reform 1994 (see also Q1).
Against a background of mismatch between the number of pupil places in upper secondary education, and a mismatch between basic vocational training places in school and apprenticeships in a number of trades and crafts; Reform 1994 reduced the number of foundation courses in VET from 101 to 12 broader and theoretically oriented initial courses, while structuring several related trades in each of the vocational tracks (Michelsen et al. 2014: 67).
In 2006, the “Knowledge Promotion Reform” introduced fewer vocational courses (9 instead of 12) and the courses became broader. Still, the ‘2+2 model’ was retained as the main model in vocational training (Nyen and Tønder 2015:211).
The Subject Renewal from 2020 increased the number of programmes from 8 to10.
There is still a great mismatch between the number of apprentices and the number of apprenticeship placements. Every year, approximately on third learners do not get an apprenticeship placement.
The apprenticeship part of vocational education is the responsibility of the county municipalities. The county municipality is obliged to offer an alternative in school if a student is without an apprenticeship placement