Norway

In addition to the digitalisation of specific programmes (see other articles in this series) the Norwegian National Centre for Science Recruitment organised special inspiration sessions with Microsoft. In this session Microsoft presented how Norway developed a special app to track the spread of COVID-19 in Norway, with specific focus on the use of AI. Over 300 students (age 15-18) participated via Zoom in the interactive sessions.

In addition to the technical dimensions of the project, the ethical questions surrounding the location-tracking of individuals were discussed during the session. 

ENT3R is a national programme in which students from STEM higher education provide homework support to pupils in secondary education (age 14-19). The STEM students meet the pupils weekly to solve real-world tasks and homework at the local university campus and act as role models and mentors. ENT3R is a national programme that is offered completely free to pupils in secondary education. 

In response to the COVID-19 measures implemented by the Norwegian government, the National Centre for Science Recruitment has developed ENT3R Digital, a completely digital incarnation of the ENT3R programme. In ENT3R Digital all pupils meet their mentors in a digital classroom from 16.00-20.00h each school day. Pupils can submit their questions via chat or talk to their mentors directly via webcam. Mentors use a digital drawing board to help students solve their homework assignments. More information can be found on the programme webpage (see link above). Video's of the ENT3R programme and example sessions (Norwegian only) are available via the website.

For more information about ENT3R Digital, please contact us directly.

On January 18, 2018 the Norwegian National Centre for Science Recruitment organised a first stakeholder consultation to explore a possible Norwegian Technology Pact based on existing STEM strategies in Denmark, the Netherlands and Estonia. The meeting featured a presentation of the upcoming Danish Technology Pact by the Danish STEM platform ASTRA.

The OECD Skills Strategy provides a strategic approach to skills policies to promote better skills, better jobs and better lives. It aims to strengthen countries’ skills systems through the coherent development, activation and effective use of skills to promote economic prosperity and social cohesion, reflecting a strong focus on “lifetime employability”. The OECD works collaboratively with a range of countries in applying the OECD Skills Strategy framework to build more effective national skills strategies. Each national skills strategy country project offers a highly tailored approach to focus on the unique skills challenges, context and objectives of each country. Each project leverages OECD comparative data and policy analysis, fosters collaboration across ministerial portfolios and levels of government while engaging all relevant stakeholders – employers, trade unions, and civil society organisations.

Norway is currently facing a situation where the needs of the society and working life for expertise in mathematics and a number of natural science and technological fields are not being met. This means that the educational system is not providing sufficient MST competence. This is serious and will be a barrier to a positive trend for innovation and for working life and society in general.

We need a strategy for developing the necessary competence in the population that society, working life and trade and industry need in the natural science and technological areas. One of the most important policy instruments for succeeding in this is to strengthen the teaching of MST in education in Norway. Thus the government has in its inaugural declaration the following formulation: "especially strengthen the MST competency throughout the whole educational pathway and increase the efforts to recruit students to these subjects".

Increased competence in MST and better recruitment are the core elements in the strategy that is hereby being submitted: A joint promotion of MST.