Stronger cooperation between schools and industry

The Ministry of Education and Culture, IÐAN Education Centre, and Rafmennt, on behalf of the business sector, have entered into a declaration of cooperation to increase the number of vocational students and strengthen the collaboration between upper secondary schools and the business sector to promote workplace learning. The declaration of cooperation was signed today at a ceremony in the Héðinn machine workshop.

With the new Regulation on Workplace Learning No. 180/2021, which takes effect on 1 August 2021, upper secondary schools are required to supervise students in workplace learning in accordance with the Act on Upper Secondary Schools No. 92/2008. These changes entail increased services for vocational students, a more professional framework for workplace learning, and closer cooperation between the business sector and upper secondary schools. They are also designed to make it easier for students to complete their vocational training regardless of their employment status and to increase the efficiency of workplace learning, as its duration will now be based on students' competence according to Article 7 of the regulation, instead of the number of weeks at a workplace as before.

With this declaration of cooperation, the associations, on behalf of the business sector, declare themselves ready to:

• Assist upper secondary schools in finding placements at workplaces to secure students a master craftsman, company, or institutional contract, cf. Article 5 of the regulation.
• Assist upper secondary schools in finding placements at workplaces for students on the school-based pathway, cf. Article 6 of the regulation.
• Encourage companies to offer students workplace learning and ensure that there are always qualified companies available to take on students.
• Supervise companies, provide an opinion on whether they meet the set competence requirements, and forward this information to the Directorate of Education so that the Directorate's register of companies that can take on students is always as accurate as possible.
• Assist upper secondary schools in organising workplace learning at more than one workplace in accordance with Paragraph 4 of Article 4 of the regulation if required due to new competence criteria.
• Assist workplaces in organising workplace learning in cooperation with upper secondary schools with the aim of fully utilising companies' capacity to take on more students under contract, as projects and workloads at companies are distributed differently throughout the year.
• Assist upper secondary schools in trades where a workplace placement must be available at the start of the studies. The business sector wants to assist those interested in such studies who have not managed to secure a workplace learning position in approaching companies that are authorised to take on students under contract.
• Assist workplaces with the implementation of electronic logbooks in cooperation with the Directorate of Education and upper secondary schools.

Work will now begin immediately on preparing for the cooperation.

In the picture are Páll Magnússon, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Jóhanna Klara Stefánsdóttir, Chair of the Board of IÐAN, and Margrét Halldóra Arnarsdóttir, Chair of the Board of Rafmennt, who signed the agreement. Also in the picture are Þór Pálsson, Managing Director of Rafmennt, and Hildur Elín Vignir, Managing Director of IÐAN.