News
Nordic youths want to learn more about work environments
May 28, 2021
A Nordic project could help young people learn more about work environments, starting in elementary school. The Swedish Agency for Work Environment Expertise is preparing a module for 13 to 18-year-olds to improve their work environment knowledge, and the hope is to spread this across the Nordics.
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Improved labour market access for sign language users
May 28, 2021
Earlier this year the Norwegian parliament passed a new language act that states that Norway is multilingual. For the first time, Norwegian sign language was recognised as the national sign language, equal to spoken and written Norwegian as a language and cultural expression.
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Nordic job exchange hopes to bounce back from Corona
May 28, 2021
Many Nordic cooperation platforms have been hit by the Corona pandemic. One of the higher profile ones is Nordjobb, the Nordic mobility programme for young workers. Summer jobs should be starting up now, but many are still waiting to hear from their prospective employers.
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Åland gave Finnish Maria a Nordic language boost
May 28, 2021
Improved self-confidence, great experiences together with other Nordjobb workers and useful language training. These are the best memories from Maria Karjalainen’s time working through Nordjobb. Her job was in Åland – exotic enough for a student from Rovaniemi in northern Finland.
Portrait
Margrethe Vestager dares take the fight to the giants
May 28, 2021
EU’s Danish Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager fights against the big ones bullying the little ones. It brings her respect at home and abroad.
News
Workplace battlegrounds: Are Norwegian employees being criminalised?
May 28, 2021
How should an employer handle workplace conflicts? In Norway, it is becoming increasingly common to hire external consultants to perform a workplace investigation. The consultants often come from a legal or psychological background. Employees risk being exposed to situations resembling police interrogations – yet with no legal protection, warn researchers Bitten Nordrik and Tereza Østbø Kuldova.
In focus
Theme: The green transition
May 28, 2021
The green shift can be a threat to traditional businesses like petrol stations and it can create new jobs – like when Northvolt builds an enormous battery factory in Swedish Västerbotten. Denmark wants to make more environmentally friendly buildings, while Linnea Sjögren from Sweden has rediscovered an old resource – seaweed. Nordic and German trade unions have agreed to work together for a greener economy.
News
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EU/NORDICS
The social pillar strengthened after EU Porto summit
May 10, 2021
The EU’s informal summit in Porto, Portugal, on 7 - 8 May ended in a declaration which strengthens the social pillar’s importance in the Union. To the relief of Nordic member states, the introduction of statutory minimum wages was not mentioned in the final document.
Editorial
The green transition needs public support
Apr 29, 2021
The green transition and Greenland. Are the two linked? The election result which turned the power balance upside down on the island was influenced by a controversial mining project. It promised an abundance of rare earth materials needed for lithium batteries that are used in electric cars and wind turbines.
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Nordic and German trade unions join forces for the green transition
Apr 29, 2021
Nordic trade unions should work with their colleagues in Germany to make sure the green transition happens in a just way. Together they can be strong enough to get this trade union perspective on the agenda.
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Danish world first: a circular and sustainable building
Apr 29, 2021
In 2023, 60 Danish families will move into a cutting edge building made from climate-friendly materials that can be recycled or reused. This kind of sustainable and circular construction is being accelerated and the Nordics are playing an important role.
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Construction industry high up on Nordic climate agenda
Apr 29, 2021
The Nordic countries are working intensively together to reduce the climate impact from the construction industry both in the region and elsewhere in the EU.
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Passionate about seaweed: healthy, tasty and plentiful
Apr 29, 2021
Seaweed has been rediscovered as a resource with a range of uses point out ecopreneurs and researchers. But it is also under threat from human activities.
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The many ways in which seaweed can save the environment
Apr 29, 2021
In Denmark, researchers, companies, authorities and interest organisations have come together in Tang Nu (Danish for Seaweed Now), a project exploring how seaweed farming might help create cleaner oceans and how to use seaweed biomass as food and animal feed.
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Norwegian petrol stations might fall victim to EVs
Apr 29, 2021
The number of petrol stations has slowly fallen for many years. Soon there will be more EV chargers than petrol stations in Norway.
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Green transition brings big industry to northern Sweden
Apr 29, 2021
The construction of Northvolt’s electric car battery factory in Skellefteå in Västerbotten County represents one of the largest industrial investments in Swedish history. Within five years, 3,000 people will be employed to produce a car battery that is environmentally friendly to produce and to use.
News
Will English become the new Nordic language of cooperation?
Apr 29, 2021
Which language should the Nordic region choose for its future cooperation? The common Scandinavian which is spoken by three-quarters of the Nordic population? Or do we take the consequences of an ever decreasing understanding of languages and turn to English? Is the Nordic identity at all built on a common language?
News
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GREENLAND
Greenland chooses new government in protest against controversial mining
Apr 29, 2021
Greenland’s natural resource fairytale must not come at the expense of Greenlanders’ health, welfare and job opportunities. That was the clear signal from voters as they went to the polls to on 6 April 2021 and got a new coalition government.
News
Sexual harassment: new knowledge needed
Apr 29, 2021
Sexual harassment in the care sector has had less attention than harassment in other sectors. Patients behaving inappropriately is often seen as part of the job. “High tolerance levels represent a problem,” says Bryndis Elfa Valdemarsdottir, who has been heading the Icelandic part of a Nordic project looking at this problem.
News
Disability in the workplace: More than new technology is needed
Apr 17, 2021
Can new technology, and mainly digitalisation, help people with disabilities do better in the labour market? A new report from the Nordic Welfare Centre is not optimistic.
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