Finland’s skill development system is one of the most successful in the OECD. The country’s 15-year old students have been amongst the top performers of all the countries participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) since its first edition in 2000. Its adult population has some of the highest levels of literacy and numeracy in the OECD, according to the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), surpassed only by Japan.
To maintain these remarkable performances, the skill development system needs to adapt to a rapidly changing labour market. Globalisation, technological change and population ageing are affecting the types of jobs that are and will be available in Finland and how they are carried out. Today, the vast majority of new jobs created require high levels of skills, while meta-cognitive and digital skills are becoming more important in working life. Skill shortages in the Finnish labour market are increasingly apparent and there are growing concerns about the supply of higher-level skills, given demographic change and stagnating, albeit high, educational attainment levels.
Finland’s skill development system must get future-ready. As the vast majority of people affected by these changes are already in the labour market, addressing the skills of the existing workforce will be key to managing the transition. Giving adults better opportunities to upskill and reskill will improve their economic outcomes and well-being, as well as maintain the competitiveness of Finnish firms and the economy as a whole.
Finland starts from a good basis. Its adult learning system is well developed and offers a wide range of learning opportunities at all skill levels. More than one in two adults participate in job-related learning activities every year – a high share in international comparisons. However, participation is unevenly distributed in the population and especially low amongst adults with low-skills, the long-term unemployed, as well as older adults. The current system could also be calibrated better to help all adults keep abreast with the transformation of the labour market. The report identifies the following challenges:
1. Some gaps in learning provision, including limited upskilling opportunities for adults with vocational qualifications and, more generally, limited availability of short courses relevant to the labour market.
2. A financial incentive system that leads to inefficiencies by encouraging participation in formal education, such as bachelor degrees, rather than non-formal or informal learning, such as participation in seminars and learning from peers.
3. The limited alignment of existing education and training provision with labour market needs, not least due to the lack of strong mechanisms to use skill anticipation information in policymaking.
What is more, Finland has the largest gaps in learning participation between adults with low basic skills and those with higher skill levels amongst OECD economies. This is problematic, as the employment opportunities for low-skilled adults are shrinking. Barriers to accessing learning provision are already low in Finland, with much of the provision being offered for free or at a low-cost to the individual, delivered flexibly and in principle being open to adults at all skill levels. However, given the universal nature of Finnish adult learning provision it offers little targeted support for adults with low skills, be this outreach activities, advice and guidance services or specific training programmes. This is an issue, as more than half of all adults with low skills in Finland do not wish to take up education opportunities at all. Attitudinal barriers play an important role in this, such as undervaluing the benefits of education and training, negative experiences with initial education or network effects, notably the low training participation of their peer group. Offering more targeted support for adults with low basic skills to upskill or reskill is now becoming an economic imperative for a future of work that is more inclusive and productive.