Theme: Knowledge Based Society
Is Volvo a car or a computer?
The Nordic countries are well advanced in the use of the new technology. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden are at the forefront of Europe in terms of home PCs, Internet connections, and, not least, ownership of mobile telephones. But the lack of skilled labour can be an obstacle to continued rapid development, warn many experts.
The hunt for skills
A central feature of developments is the hunt for skilled personnel. Developments are taking place so fast that it is necessary for people to constantly upgrade their knowledge. For instance, it is estimated that there will be three generations of technology during a graduate engineering course. The various countries are now going in for skills updates.
Electronic jobs service attracts new visitors
In 1999, the Norwegian jobs website had 47 million hits. This was more than a quadrupling in terms of the previous year. In Sweden too, there is a great amount of interest in its jobs website, Platsbanken. On any day, 100,000 persons visit the site and read 600,000 adverts for jobs. The Swedish system will now form the basis for a European jobs database project.
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