Reform of continuous learning thrown to ease skills lacks

The reform of continuous learning is being prepared by a parliamentary group, which includes members from all parliamentary parties.

Labour market organisations, education providers and other key organisations and ministries are represented in the monitoring group, said an official press release.

It is the task of these groups to prepare the proposals for implementing continuous learning in line with the Government Programme.

“Skills and competence requirements are increasing rapidly, no matter what sector we’re looking at. But almost all sectors are suffering from a major shortage of skilled workers. In a country such as Finland, investing in education and skills will be the best employment policy,” said Minister of Education Li Andersson.

The continuous learning policy will be published by the end of 2020. The policy will cover areas such as the provision and financing of education, identification of prior learning and students’ income.

“Upskilling for adults is currently a rather complex puzzle, which it should not be. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of thousands of working age people with insufficient skills in literacy, numeracy and information technology. Clearly we must make it easier for people to upskill,” said Andersson.

“At the moment, people who already are highly educated tend to be the ones participating in adult education. So I think it is very important that people with a lower level of education and with a weaker position in the labour market should also find a way to engage in continuous learning. One way of doing this would be to use unemployment security to make it easier for people seeking work to study, which would then support their access to employment,” said Andersson.

According to the Government Programme, continuous learning responds to the need to develop skills at different stages of people’s lives and careers. In order to raise the employment rate, Finland needs a supply of skilled labour.

Policy preparation will draw on relevant research in the field. Stakeholders and other interested parties in the sector will be encouraged to participate extensively in the preparation.

In the Government, the reform is led by the Ministerial Working Group on Competence, Education and Innovation, and it is also discussed by the Ministerial Working Group on Promoting Employment.