National Reforms in Vocational Education and Training and Adult Learning
Adult Education
The Minister of Education, Science and Culture believes it is important that people adopt the idea that education is a life long task that actually lasts from cradle to grave. Learning takes place not only in the classroom but also in the workplace, in social activities, in everyday life and everywhere where people draw lessons from a new experience. The government puts emphasis on:
- Supporting the work of education- and lifelong learning centers
- Supporting secondary schools to offer adult education, evening- and distance learning.
- Offering service contracts to centres around the country as to promote continuing education and training in collaboration with other educational institutions on behalf of members of the Confederation of Icelandic Employers, Federation of State and Municipal Employees and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs.
- Support annual work of lifelong education centers in the rural areas and two in the capital area that offer a variety of studies, academic and career counceling as well as validation for those who want to strengthen their position in the labor market.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture has taken several steps toward aligning fully to the National Qualification Framework (NQF). Description of the NQF can be found in the National Curriculum for Upper secondary education act. It is assumed to encompass all education and training offered in the country, be it general education, academic studies, VET, art studies, special education or adult education. There is a loosely defined connection between the level of upper secondary education and higher education, though both levels have been developed with the same concepts in mind.
2019
No significant reforms were made.
2018
No significant reforms were made.
2017
No significant reforms were made.
Vocational Education and Training
The Upper Secondary Education Act provides for a new approach to design of study programmes. Education providers have autonomy when it comes to writing curricula in general education and VET. They will do this based on outcomes based approach in which learning outcomes are presented in terms of a new credit system which measures the workload of the learner. The social partners will play a crucial role in informing providers about the needs for knowledge and competences in the labour market in order to make study programmes relevant and useful.
Main policy objectives of the NQF are three:
- to give and interlink overview of the structure of the education system with an emphasis of entry and exit points and definition of the knowledge, skills and competences assigned to each point
- to act as a tool for reform and as an opportunity to review the overall functioning of education and training
- to assure mobility of students between institutions nationally and internationally.
The Minister of Education, Science and Culture can seek consultation with occupational councils, each within their own discipline of vocational training, on matters regarding vocational training at the upper secondary school level. Its main tasks are as follows:
- To propose general study objectives and define the needs for knowledge and skills on which to base study programme descriptions for the occupations concerned and which form part of the general part of the National Curriculum Guide for Upper Secondary Schools, and to make proposals for learning outcomes;
- To devise criteria for the division of study programmes into school-based and work-based learning;
- To make proposals regarding the structure and content of examinations in individual occupations;
- To keep a record of companies and workplaces that meet the requirements for providing work-based learning pursuant to Article 28;
- To make proposals for study programme descriptions for individual study programmes, intended as guidelines for upper secondary schools, cf. Article 23;
- To provide the Minister with an opinion on study programme descriptions for vocational training submitted by individual schools for confirmation by the Minister pursuant to Article 23 (Article 25, Upper Secondary Education Act No. 92/2008).
2019
No significant reforms were made.
2018
No significant reforms were made.
2017
No significant reforms were made.