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Eurydice

EACEA National Policies Platform:Eurydice
National reforms in vocational education and training and adult learning

Norway

14.Ongoing reforms and policy developments

14.3National reforms in vocational education and training and adult learning

Last update: 22 June 2022

2021

The new structure of upper secondary vocational programmes was implemented for the school year 2020-21, where the total was extended from eight to ten, and four of these were adapted to better fit labour market needs. The new vocational programmes are as follows:

  • Electrical engineering and computer technology
  • Crafts, design and product development
  • Healthcare, child and youth development
  • Building and construction
  • Agriculture, fishing and forestry
  • Restaurant and food processing
  • Sales, service and tourism
  • Technological and industrial production
  • Hairdressing, floral, interior and retail design focuses
  • Information technology and media production

2020

The Norwegian skills reform Learning throughout life (“Lære hele livet”) is directed towards employees in the Norwegian working life. Because of the Covid-19 situation, many of the education programmes in the reform have been extended. Read more about this in chapter 14.5 .

To improve the provision of adult education in Norway, modularisation of lower and upper education for adults is undergoing pilot testing at several adult education providers. Read more about this in chapter 8.2 .

2019

There have been no reforms to date in this area.

2018

New structure of upper secondary vocational programmes, including apprenticeships

It has been decided to change the structure of upper secondary vocational programmes in order to make them better adapted to labour market needs. The changes involve new content, new programme areas and new apprenticeships. Currently, there are 8 vocational programmes (see chapter 6). This will be changed to 10 programmes in total and 4 of these will be new vocational programmes. The changes will be put into force from the school year 2020-21. The new vocational structure is as follows, new programmes are in italics (cf. only preliminary titles):

  • Programme for Building and Construction 
  • Programme for Electricity and Electronics 
  • Programme for Health Care and Early Childhood and Youth Development
  • Programme for Agriculture, Fishing and Forestry 
  • Programme for Restaurant and Food Processing
  • Programme for Technical and Industrial Production
  • Programme for Design and Traditional Crafts (Design og tradisjonshåndverk)
  • Programme for ICT and Media production (IKT og medieproduksjon)
  • Programme for Sales, Service and Travel and Tourism (Salg, service og reiseliv)
  • Programme for Hairdressing, Floral Design and Interior Design (Frisør, blomster- og interiørdesign)