Capacity for reform: the changing roles of apprenticeship in three Nordic countries

Abstract

Despite similar societal systems that have given rise to the concept of a Nordic model, the vocational education and training (VET) systems in the Nordic countries are strikingly diverse. This article provides an analysis of why the role of apprenticeship in the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish VET systems evolved along different paths from the late 1970s until the present (2020). During this period, the most fundamental changes took place in Norway, as apprenticeship was established in most VET programmes through a major reform in 1994. Sweden took the opposite course in the 1990s and instead strengthened the statist and school-based nature of its system. In Denmark, a dual system with apprenticeship where the social partners have a decisive influence has remained largely intact. We argue that differing policy positions taken by organised labour are important in order to explain the three countries’ different trajectories over the last 40 years.