Skills Policies – Building Capacities for Innovative and Resilient Nordic Regions

Skills flexibility and lifelong learning are hot topics on the current political agenda and are important elements for the regional capacity of being resilient to economic and social shocks. This project aims to increase knowledge of how the Nordic regions work with skills.

Many countries and regions are affected by a situation of unemployment in parallel to a shortage of skills in certain economic and labour markets, often referred to as the qualification mismatch problem. This situation is also relevant in the Nordic regions.

Nordic perspective on skills and growth

A Nordic study on skills is motivated by the important role that skills play for innovation and economic growth, but also for employment and the well-being of citizens in the Nordic regions. Skills analysis and prognosis, together with policies and strategies are important instruments in order to take measures to provide education, adequate human capital and skills and to address competence mismatch and shortcomings in the labour markets.

The focus of the study will be on how regional actors work with skills in order to achieve national and regional goals. How do they work to cope with the cross-sectoral and multilevel challenges that are part of the complex area of skills, and what are the enabling and hampering factors to strengthen skills in the Nordic regions?

Case studies

Case study regions for in-depth study have been selected in five Nordic countries and Greenland. The project aims at presenting some preliminary results at Nordregio Forum at the end of November 2019 and final results at Nordregio Forum 2020.

The project is a part of the Nordic thematic group for innovative and resilient regions which aims to contribute to the development of policies and new solutions to the challenges that the Nordic countries face in relation to the creation of innovative and resilient regions.