tema
Nordics: Surprisingly many struggle with literacy and numeracy
May 21, 2015 The challenge facing politicians is helping two million adults who lack the necessary skills for working and social life to secure a chance to develop, says Anders Rosdahl. He is a senior research fellow at the Danish National Centre for Social Research, and the Danish representative in the network which has just presented the Nordic PIAAC report.
tema
New comparative Nordic research measures adult competencies
May 21, 2015 For the first time ever there is a Nordic version of the OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, PIAAC. PIAAC was first published in 2013. The survey comprises comparative data from 24 countries.
tema
Workplace learning depends on what we learned in school
May 21, 2015 Our capacity to learn at work is to a large degree dependent on what we have learned in school, and working life cannot fully compensate for differences in formal schooling. That is according to a new Nordic survey which builds on the OECD’s large skills survey PIAAC. Many women in a gender segregated labour market are even loosing their numeracy skills.
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PIAAC researchers in Finland and Estonia: Continuity is key
May 21, 2015 There are no shortcuts for creating a foundation for the skills needed in working life. It is a time consuming process. Finland’s good results in international surveys stem from a 1970s school reform. The results are now at risk due to cuts and readjustments. Estonia, meanwhile, is catching up with the Nordic countries.
forskning
Norway’s female boardroom quotas: what has been the effect?
May 21, 2015 Eight years after Norway introduced the law on gender equality in boardrooms, there are zero female CEOs in the country’s 60 largest companies. Mari Teigen and other researchers have written a book about why the boardroom quota system has had such a small “contagious” effect.
Analysis
Greenland — worth the journey
May 21, 2015 The fisheries producing the Greenland prawns and halibut still represent Greenland’s most important industry, and the grant from Denmark is still the country’s largest source of money. The dream is for mining and perhaps oil to make up a larger part of the revenue.
News
Poul Nielson to map Nordic labour cooperation
May 12, 2015 The entire Nordic labour sector will be analysed by Poul Nielson, a former Danish government minister and EU Commissioner, on behalf of the Nordic Council of Ministers. Nielson will present recommendations for how to strengthen Nordic labour market cooperation.
News
June general strike looms in Iceland
May 12, 2015 Iceland is already dealing with several strikes and more trade unions are threatening industrial action. There will be a general strike in June if the parties fail to reach a collective agreement. The strikes have already become the largest labour market conflict in Iceland in 25 years.
In focus
A Nordic helping hand to marginalised youths
Apr 15, 2015 A large group of youths are not in education, employment or training - so-called NEETs. There is increased focus across Europe on ways to prevent this group of young people from permanently falling outside of the labour market. The Nordic countries have good experiences with finding, motivating and preparing these youths for work.
Editorial
An eye for the individual
Apr 15, 2015 How do you help young people who are loosing their footing as they enter adulthood? How do you motivate youths who are not in education, employment or training find the right track to their future? These were key questions when the Nordic countries recently discussed how to fight youth unemployment.
tema
Motivation key to get marginalised youths into education
Apr 15, 2015 Measures aimed at helping young people into jobs and education should support the youths’ own inner motivation. To do that you need to realise that young, marginalised people are very different from each other, says a Danish youth researcher and author of a new book on motivation.
tema
New concept at Sweden’s employment service gains young people’s trust
Apr 15, 2015 Good treatment and rapid measures targeted at the needs of young unemployed people, good coordination between municipalities and the public employment service — a proven way of achieving progress. The concept was developed in the project ‘Unga in’ and is carried forward in UNGKOMP.
tema
Iceland’s Starfatorgið: 50 percent found jobs or started studying
Apr 15, 2015 The financial crisis was tough on young Icelanders. Many were unemployed for so long that they no longer qualified for unemployment benefit, only welfare money. Between 2012 and 2014 they were sent to Starfatorgið (‘the labour exchange’). Over half of the young people participating in Starfatorgið got a job or started studying.
News
Experts propose a more labour targeted and user friendly NAV
Apr 15, 2015 One year has passed since Norway’s Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Robert Eriksson appointed the Expert group tasked with undertaking a comprehensive review of the Labour and Welfare Administration NAV under the motto ‘From bureaucratic reform to user reform’. Now the report is ready: ‘A NAV with possibilities.’
Portrait
Ingrid Ihme, chosen to sort out NAV
Apr 15, 2015 “This must be the most demanding and exciting group of the decade. I am proud to have been part of it,” says Ingrid Ihme, head of Telenor Open Mind, and one of the seven people chosen to sit in the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs’ Expert group which has been assessing possible changes to Norway’s Labour and Welfare Administration, NAV.
News