Nonformal basic skills training for adults in Norway

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Non-formal basic skills training for adults
in Norway
Vilnius, 25 November 2008 Jan Sørlie, senior
adviser Vox Norwegian Institute for Adult
Learning
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Vox is an agency of the Norwegian Ministry of
Education and Research

• Established in 2001 in connection with the
  comprehensive Competence Reform.
• Purpose Serving adult learning within and
  outside working life.
• Increasingly our attention has been directed
  towards basic skills training.

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Basic skills training

• In relation to our job market and working life
• In relation to immigrant integration
• The majority of refugees and immigrants who get
  a residence permit in Norway have a right and an
  obligation to attend an introductory course of at
  least 300 hours of Norwegian and social science.
• Vox has the responsibility for the development
  and the implementation of the curriculum of the
  introductory courses. We have also produced a
  methodological guide and various teaching
  resources. (Cooperation with the Directorate for
  Integration and Diversity.)

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Basic Competence in Working Life

• A recent national initiative which concentrates
  on basic skills training in the workplace but
  also outside the workplace with a clear intention
  of improving the participants employability.
• More than 230 course initiatives have received
  funding so far.
• There are clear links between this programme and
  our Framework for Basic Skills for Adults.

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Basic skills framework Guidelines, tools and
teacher training 

• Vox has developed the content of the Framework
  for Basic Skills for Adults, with three level
  descriptions as a starting point.
• Currently Vox is developing guidelines for
  providers, mapping tools, tests and didactic
  models.
• In addition Vox has been assigned the
  responsibility for designing a model for teacher
  training customised to the needs of teachers who
  teach basic skills to adults.
• We work in close co-operation with pedagogical
  experts from training seminars. We also draw on
  experience from other countries in this work.

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Competence goals

• Web page of the Framework, with competence goals
  http//www.vox.no/templates/CommonPage.aspx?id261
  3

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The Programme for Basic Competence in Working Life

• Started in 2006
• During the first three years about 8 million
  euros has been given to 231 projects
• For 2009 about 3,5 million euros has been made
  available

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The purpose

• Making sure that nobody is excluded from working
  life because of poor basic skills
• Trying to reduce the percentage of the population
  who are on welfare benefits of some kind,
  including retirement pension

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The background

• In accordance with the results of international
  surveys (IALS and ALL) it is estimated that
  around 430.000 of the Norwegian adult population
  will have difficulties with the requirements of
  modern working life. The majority of these are
  active in working life.
• The total Norwegian population is 4,7 million

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The target group

• Adults with limited formal education
• Those who need extra training in basic reading
  and writing, practical mathematics and elementary
  ICT skills

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How is it organised?

• Private and public enterprises can apply for
  funding, and so can the providers of courses.
• There has to be a cooperation between workers and
  management and a course provider.
• The learning activities should preferable be
  organised at the workplace.
• The learning material should include written
  information, forms etc that are part of the
  learners everyday working life.

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Sensitive matters?

• It is our experience that it is much more
  difficult to motivate people to attend courses
  focused on reading and writing than course that
  focus on computer skills.
• It is a good solution to organise courses as
  computer courses with reading and writing
  training. The potential stigma of being weak on
  literacy is taken away.

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Non-formal No exam

• The training funded by this programme leads to no
  formal certification.
• Nevertheless, it is our hope that this type of
  training, giving people a new chance, will make
  some people want to continue with for example a
  formal vocational education.

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Success factors

• Time must be spent on motivating people to take
  part.
• The shop stewards (union representatives) have a
  vital role in this.
• The management must show that this is something
  they give priority to.

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The unemployed

• In cooperation with the Norwegian Labour and
  Welfare Administration we organise some courses
  for people who are unemployed and may have been
  so for some time.
• The idea is above all to gain experience in how
  to work with a challenging group of people and
  how to improve their employability.