Could the labour market gender balance be improved by introducing new types of apprenticeship-trained workers? This article investigates what happened in the wake of the Norwegian VET programme for health and social care, a new approach introduced via the 1994 educational reform. By upgrading this traditionally female-dominated area of education, it was hoped that working conditions for women would improve and that, over time, the gender balance among workers would improve. Hence, Norwegian VET policy became a means to meet and the ambitions set by national policies for gender equality. Twenty years on, health and social care remains the most popular VET programme for female applicants. However, only a minority of those attending the school-based part of the education applies for apprenticeships as health care workers; most opt to switch to general education in order to access higher education. Those who stay on typically hold part-time jobs. This area of the labour market remains segregated in terms of gender. Based on extensive quantitative and qualitative data, the article discusses what might explain this development.
In this chapter, we argue that policy-making aiming to achieve environmentally sustainable transitions of the economy are in need of a solid empirical evidence base. Conventional measurement concepts used for example by the EU based on sector-classifications deliver highly biased pictures. We propose measurement concepts based on the use of green skills and human capital, validate key assumptions of our concept and apply the concept to the four Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Our results show that indeed various versions of indicators based on green skills help predicting whether firms introduce environmental innovations, and this finding is robust across the four countries. Upon applying our measurement concept at the regional level, we find that the different Nordic countries show rather distinct patterns in their geographical distributions of these green skills, which may have implications for firms' capabilities to introduce environmental innovations.
Earlier studies have demonstrated large county differences in rates of completion in upper secondary education in Norway, and to explain this it is usual to control for individual characteristics. However, this article's main focus is the context the student is growing up in, how municipal traits can help explain countywide variations in completion. Controlling for individual and context (municipal) characteristics decreases the county differences, and this is particularly true for academically oriented programs. For vocational programs, however, there are still differences, but these can be partly explained by context, such as the home municipality's educational level, unemployment, industrial structure and centrality. We find that different aspects of the home municipality appear to affect educational programs differently. If the parent's educational level is high, the chance of completing the academic programme or programme for health and social studies increases, while to come from a less urban area increases the chance of completing the programmes building and construction and technical and industrial production. SammendragDet har lenge vaert påvist store fylkesforskjeller i gjennomføring i videregående opplaering i Norge, og for å ta hensyn til dette har det i tidligere studier vaert vanlig å kontrollere for ulike individkjennetegn. Denne artikkelens hovedfokus er imidlertid å se på disse regionale forskjellene. Hva betyr konteksten eleven vokser opp i, det vil si hjemsted eller hjemkommune, og hvordan kan det bidra til å forklare fylkesvise variasjoner i fullføring? Fylkesforskjellene i gjennomføring reduseres om man kontrollerer for ulike typer kjennetegn på individ-og stedsnivå, og dette gjelder spesielt for studieforberedende utdanningsprogrammer. For yrkesfaglige programmer gjenstår derimot noen forskjeller om man kontrollerer for individkjennetegn, men disse forskjellene kan delvis forklares av kontekst, slik som hjemkommunens utdanningsnivå, ledighet, naeringsstruktur og sentralitet. Vi finner at ulike aspekter ved hjemkommunen ser ut til å påvirke ulike utdanningsprogrammer ulikt, ved at høyt utdanningsnivå øker sjansen for å fullføre studiespesialisering eller helse-og sosialfag, mens for eksempel det å komme fra en ikke-sentral kommune er positivt for gjennomføring i bygg og anleggsfag eller teknikk og industriell produksjon.
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