- 2023Completed
Background
In a labour market where there is unmet demand for several central and critical skills, it is important to clearly prioritise what society should invest in going forward, to cover the most important skills needs in working and social life.
On 24 March the government published the White Paper (Meld. St. 14(2022-2023)) - Overview of skills needs in Norway. The Paper maps the most important skills needs in the world of work. Concerning the green transition, the government intends to prioritise more studentships in higher vocational education in technical subjects, health and the green transition.
Objectives
The overarching aim of the White Paper is to contribute to high employment and to cover the most important skills needs in working and social life. The White Paper points to the most important competence needs going forward and explains the government's measures.
The government prioritises the following areas in its education and skills policy going forward:
- skills necessary for a highly productive and competitive business life;
- skills necessary to carry out the green shift;
- skills necessary to have good welfare services throughout the country and to deal with the demographic developments, balanced against the need for labour in other sectors of society;
- to qualify and mobilise more of those who are outside the labour market.
Description
The White Paper details the government's policy in the following areas:
- dimensioning of the education system;
- access to education throughout the country;
- funding of universities and colleges;
- learning in working life;
- qualification of the labour force reserve;
- use of skills from abroad.
For IVET and CVET, this means:
Dimensioning
The county authorities are responsible for upper secondary and higher vocational education. At the upper secondary level, the county municipalities must balance factors such as student preferences, access to local apprenticeships or the skills needs of working life and society. The government, in collaboration with social partners, plans some structural changes in upper secondary education to align education with workforce needs better, aiming to make upper secondary education more flexible for the young, counteract the decline in apprenticeships during economic downturns and improve accessibility, especially for adults and those outside the workforce.
County councils must expand capacity in higher vocational education in response to job market demands. The government plans to prioritise technical, health, and green subjects and studentships in technical, health, and care subjects and other areas important for the green transition, with ongoing dialogue with the county councils on these priorities.
Access
The Government intends to invest in flexible, decentralised higher vocational education, making it an...
The White Paper details the government's policy in the following areas:
- dimensioning of the education system;
- access to education throughout the country;
- funding of universities and colleges;
- learning in working life;
- qualification of the labour force reserve;
- use of skills from abroad.
For IVET and CVET, this means:
Dimensioning
The county authorities are responsible for upper secondary and higher vocational education. At the upper secondary level, the county municipalities must balance factors such as student preferences, access to local apprenticeships or the skills needs of working life and society. The government, in collaboration with social partners, plans some structural changes in upper secondary education to align education with workforce needs better, aiming to make upper secondary education more flexible for the young, counteract the decline in apprenticeships during economic downturns and improve accessibility, especially for adults and those outside the workforce.
County councils must expand capacity in higher vocational education in response to job market demands. The government plans to prioritise technical, health, and green subjects and studentships in technical, health, and care subjects and other areas important for the green transition, with ongoing dialogue with the county councils on these priorities.
Access
The Government intends to invest in flexible, decentralised higher vocational education, making it an integral part of institutions' educational activities. Digitised study and training offers are crucial in this effort, also in upper secondary education.
Learning in working life
The government is committed to developing a broad skills reform , raising skills throughout working life and collaborating with social partners. This reform focuses on investment in how the education system, particularly higher vocational education, can contribute to better career paths for skilled workers. Key elements include developing industry programmes and the Industrial Vocational School to meet labour market needs and expanding education support schemes to allow shorter programmes access to student loans.
Qualification of the labour force reserve
The government plans to invest in skills to get more people into work. Adults with low education levels are more often outside the workforce than others. Many also have various health problems, in addition to a lack of skills. To give more people the opportunity to qualify for a permanent connection to working life, the government intends to develop interagency cooperation, particularly between the county councils and the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), so that more people can have the opportunity to complete training leading to a trade or journeyperson's certificate. Local cooperation models between NAV, the county councils and employers concerning VET, already set up in several places, are to be used to develop further offers throughout the country. The government also wants to experiment with extending the duration of a training initiative in NAV because the limited duration may be a barrier for some users.
Use of skills from abroad
Recognition of skills acquired abroad can trigger a skills reserve in foreign employees and give them better opportunities to participate in skills development in working life. The government continues to develop various recognition schemes to make it easier to use expertise from abroad in Norwegian working life.
Funding of universities and colleges does not apply to either IVET or CVET.
The White Paper was accepted on 24 March 2023. It focused on several key measures, including:
- considering measures to counteract the decline in apprenticeships during economic downturns;
- dimensioning the vocational offer in line with the needs of society and working life;
- considering measures to make upper secondary education more available for adults;
- collaborating on further measures to ensure more apprenticeships;
- assessing measures to ensure an increased completion rate in upper secondary.
Bodies responsible
- Ministry of Education and Research (KD)
Target groups
Learners
- Learners in upper secondary, including apprentices
- Young people (15-29 years old)
- Adult learners
Entities providing VET
- VET providers (all kinds)
Thematic categories
Governance of VET and lifelong learning
This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.
This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.
The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.
This thematic sub-category refers to the integration of VET into economic, industrial, innovation, social and employment strategies, including those linked to recovery, green and digital transitions, and where VET is seen as a driver for innovation and growth. It includes national, regional, sectoral strategic documents or initiatives that make VET an integral part of broader policies, or applying a mix of policies to address an issue VET is part of, e.g. in addressing youth unemployment measures through VET, social and active labour market policies that are implemented in combination. National skill strategies aiming at quality and inclusive lifelong learning also fall into this sub-category.
This thematic sub-category refers both to formal mechanisms of stakeholder engagement in VET governance and to informal cooperation among stakeholders, which motivate shared responsibility for quality VET. Formal engagement is usually based on legally established institutional procedures that clearly define the role and responsibilities for relevant stakeholders in designing, implementing and improving VET. It also refers to establishing and increasing the degree of autonomy of VET providers for agile and flexible VET provision.
In terms of informal cooperation, the sub-category covers targeted actions by different stakeholders to promote or implement VET. This cooperation often leads to creating sustainable partnerships and making commitments for targeted actions, in line with the national context and regulation, e.g. national alliances for apprenticeships, pacts for youth or partnerships between schools and employers. It can also include initiatives and projects run by the social partners or sectoral organisations or networks of voluntary experts and executives, retired or on sabbatical, to support their peers in the fields of VET and apprenticeships, as part of the EAfA.
Supporting lifelong learning culture and increasing participation
Lifelong learning refers to all learning (formal, non-formal or informal) taking place at all stages in life and resulting in an improvement or update in knowledge, skills, competences and attitudes or in participation in society from a personal, civic, cultural, social or employment-related perspective (Erasmus+, Glossary of terms, https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/programme-guide/part-d/glossary-common-terms). A systemic approach to CVET is crucial to ensure adaptability to evolving demands.
This broad thematic category looks at ways of creating opportunities and ensuring access to re-skilling and upskilling pathways, allowing individuals to progress smoothly in their learning throughout their lives with better permeability between general and vocational education and training, and better integration and compatibility between initial and continuing VET and with higher education. Individuals should be supported in acquiring and updating their skills and competences and navigating easily through education and training systems. Strategies and campaigns that promote VET and LLL as an attractive and high-quality pathway, providing quality lifelong guidance and tailored support to design learning and career paths, and various incentives (financial and non-financial) to attract and support participation in VET and LLL fall into this thematic category as well.
This thematic category also includes many initiatives on making VET inclusive and ensuring equal education and training opportunities for various groups of learners, regardless of their personal and economic background and place of residence – especially those at risk of disadvantage or exclusion, such as persons with disabilities, the low-skilled and low-qualified, minorities, migrants, refugees and others.
This thematic sub-category refers to ensuring smooth transitions (permeability) of learners within the entire education and training system, horizontally and vertically. It includes measures and policies allowing learners easily or by meeting certain conditions to move from general education programmes to VET and vice versa; to increase qualification levels in their vocation through the possibility of attending vocational programmes at higher levels, including professional degrees in higher education. It also covers opening up learning progression by introducing flexible pathways that are based on the validation and recognition of the outcomes of non-formal and informal learning.
European priorities in VET
Osnabrück Declaration
- Resilience and excellence through quality, inclusive and flexible VET
- Establishing a new lifelong learning culture - relevance of continuing VET and digitalisation
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). White Paper Overview of skills needs in Norway (Meld. St. 14 (2022-2023)): Norway. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/47234