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Technical Vocational Education and Training in Norway is a four-year education on the upper secondary level. It is a combination of education in schools and training in enterprises.
Norway is a Scandinavian country encompassing mountains, glaciers and deep coastal fjords. Scandinavia is in the northern part of Europe. The population is 5 million people [1]. Oslo, the capital, is a city of green spaces and museums.
Technical vocational education and training (TVET) is designed to produce skilled tradespeople. In coming years there will be a great need for workers with this kind of training in both the private and the public sectors. There will be a great need for skilled workers with vocational education and training in Norwegian businesses and the public sector. The Norwegian Government takes steps to raise the status of vocational subjects and to reduce the unacceptably high dropout rates. More apprenticeships are needed as well as more and better-targeted educational pathways. The Government considers it essential to take steps to raise the status of vocational subjects and reduce the unacceptably high dropout rates. More apprenticeships are needed as well as more and better-targeted educational pathways. In light of this, the Government has launched the TVET Promotion initiative with three main goals: closer cooperation between schools and businesses, greater flexibility in vocational education and training, and better and more relevant courses.[2]
Almost 65 000 students started their upper secondary education for the first time in the autumn of 2011, and these are included in the 2016 statistics on completion in upper secondary education. Seventy-three per cent of these pupils completed their upper secondary education and qualified for university or obtained vocational competence within five years. In recent years, the five-year completion rate had been around 70 per cent, until it increased to 72.6 per cent in the 2015 statistics for the cohort starting their upper secondary education in 2010. The figures for 2016 show a continued increase.[1]
TVET consists of eight programmes that lead to more than 180 different trade- or journeyman’s certificates. Most of these TVET programmes consist of two years of school-based education and training, followed by two years of apprenticeship in a training enterprise. The National Curricula lays the foundation for TVET in school and in the training enterprise. To complete a TVET qualification one must pass a practical and theoretical trade- or journeyman’s exam [3].
During the two years in school, the student gets a general introduction to the vocational field and an opportunity to specialise in a chosen craft or trade. The teaching consist of general education, theoretical introduction to the vocational field, and practical training in-school workshops and placements at enterprises.
The apprenticeship period gives the apprentice an opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge in a vocational field and prepare for the trade- or journeyman’s exams. The apprenticeship period is divided between one year of training and one year of productive work for the training enterprise. How this is organised varies, in general apprentices will receive more training at the beginning of the apprenticeship.
References
- Statistics Norway
- Government.no (https://www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/education/school/innsiktsartikler/the-vocational-education-and-training-vet-promotion/id2466567/)
- The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (https://www.udir.no/in-english/norwegian-vocational-education-and-training/)
Lucubrate Magazine January 2020
The Photo on the top of the article from WorldSkills Europe 2014
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