Lifelong learning 2008-2016

The purpose of the report Livslang læring (lifelong learning) is to present results from the Learning Conditions Monitor (Lærevilkårsmonitoren), a supplementary survey to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) running in the first quarter each year. The results described in this report are from the period 2008 to 2016.

The share of participants in education and non-formal education has been quite stable in the time period. Meanwhile, the share of participation is lower in both education and non-formal education in 2016 than in 2008. This happens at a time where politicians and central actors in Norwegian business life pinpoints that Norwegian working life is changing and that the technological development is requiring, and will require, even more from the competence of the Norwegian work force (Børringbo & Østrem, 15.01.2016, Regjeringen.no, 2015).

Through the year of 2016, 421 000 persons between the age of 22 and 59 years have attended formal education. This equals 15 per cent of the population in the age group. The share of participants has been stable from 2008.

When it comes to formal further education we study persons over the age of 22, who have left their studies for three years or more. In 2016 233 000 persons, or 9 per cent of the population, attend further education. 81 percent of these attend courses on the level of tertiary education or post-secondary vocational level.

Women participate more often in further education than men. Over the last couple of years, the share of participation has decreased among both sexes. While 50 per cent of the female participants are educated on tertiary level, 50 per cent of the male participants have upper secondary education.

In 2016, 7 per cent of the people in employment attend some sort of further education. A typical attendant is female, has higher education, is in the thirties, is working full time and is employed in the public sector.

The report also studies attendance in non-formal education. This is mainly work-related education, and 9 out of 10 participants are employed. Most of the participants are full time employees with higher education. A larger share of participants is employed in the public sector than in the private sector. This pattern has been relatively stable since 2008.

The report also examines learning-intensive work or unstructured learning. Respondents report whether their work requires them to learn new things and whether they receive opportunities to acquire new knowledge and skills during their daily work. Since 2008, there has been a steady trend that 6 out of 10 employee’s experience that their work day is learning intensive.