Science boost in school, higher education and working life

Science boost in schools

Science and technology in schools must be strengthened, and interest must be created early among far more children and young people. We must also ensure that more people with science skills choose to become teachers. Norwegian school pupils perform worse on average in mathematics and science than before. A national effort is needed to reverse this trend. The teaching must stimulate the individual pupil, and schools should strengthen cooperation with working life and with education at a higher level in order to demonstrate relevance in the subjects.

NITO believes that:

• The Government must draw up a new science strategy for increased learning and competence in science
• The number of hours in science in lower secondary school must be increased to at least the international average
• The natural science subject in lower secondary school is divided into disciplines such as biology, physics and chemistry
• Science subjects will give greater credit on the grade card from both primary and secondary education. 
• Technology and programming will be established as a common core subject in primary and secondary education
• The recruitment of science teachers with in-depth competence will be strengthened. 

Increased skills development in working life

Norway will not solve the skills shortage with new graduates alone. In order to meet the needs of the future in working life, continuing and further education must be given a major boost – with increased allocations and strong incentives for lifelong learning.

NITO believes that: 

• Skills development in working life needs stronger public funding
• Universities and university colleges must be stimulated to develop continuing and further education that is relevant and targeted to working life and society's needs
• Competence policy and competence measures must be a topic in the dialogue between the parties in the workplace
• The sector programmes must be further developed as measures in the skills policy with increased funding and duration

STEM investment in higher education and research

Norway will have a world-class research-based engineering and technology education. This requires increased funding of the educations, which include infrastructure, internships and teaching hours. There is a need for a boost in the quality of engineering and technology education with more variation in teaching and assessment methods.

Higher education is a public responsibility. Through allocations and management, the Government should ensure efficient utilisation of resources and address the need for national coordination between universities and university colleges. NITO believes that framework plans are an important management tool for Norwegian engineering education.

NITO believes that:

• The engineering and technology education programmes need funding that makes it possible to offer these programmes of good quality throughout the country
• Research efforts must continue to be increased, and cooperation between the business sector, the research communities and the public sector should be strengthened
• The basic allocation to research institutes in technical, industrial and environmental sciences should be increased to strengthen their role in the green shift
• All engineering programmes should offer credit-earning practical training

Read also: NITO's policy booklet 2024-2027