In Focus
The Swedes studying on nearly full pay
Up to 80 % pay. That is how much adults in Sweden on permanent contracts can be paid if they want to study in order to improve their basic education or change careers. Applications started flowing in as soon as the new support scheme became available.
AI – threat or opportunity?
In a new report on artificial intelligence for worker management, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work warns against what could happen if the technology is misapplied in workplaces. At the same time, AI is considered crucial for digital green change both in the Nordics and the Baltics.
Danish businesses lack AI knowledge
Many Danish companies do not know how to use AI. Despite state AI development support, Danish businesses are lagging behind according to a Nordic report.
AI in recruitment – a double-edged sword?
More and more businesses use AI – artificial intelligence – in recruitment. Is this new technology an efficient tool to find the best-suited candidate and to increase the inclusion of marginalised groups? The first study into this gave unexpected results.
Iceland's record-breaking parental leave "not perfect"
Iceland's parliament passed a new law on parents’ leave in 2021 giving each parent at least six months off – the longest paternity leave in the Nordics. Yet only six weeks can now be split between them, a big change from earlier when parents could split far more time between them. Usually the mother took the entire leave that could be split.
Dads on equal footing with mums in Denmark’s new parental leave law
More gender equality in the labour market and more fathers on leave with small children. This is what Danish families can now look forward to after the government has given fathers nine extra weeks of earmarked paternity leave.
Faroe Islands: Four weeks enough for father and child?
Faroese fathers use four out of the 52 weeks of the available parental leave while mothers use 48. The reason is economic, explains a father and the head of the Gender Equality Commission.
Green industry makes Swedish Luleå try to grow three times faster
There is a race on in Northern Sweden. Enormous investments in new technology give the largest of the Nordic countries the chance to compete with others to be the first to kickstart the green transition. It is a challenge for businesses and for civil society.
Trailblazing development of green steel in Swedish Boden
Mass production of fossil-free steel is to be the arrowhead of the green transition in Northern Sweden. The initiative aims to mitigate climate change and meet the world’s needs for sustainability. With it come many new jobs and a need for new housing.
Image of macho Northern Swedish man must go to secure recruitment
A gun on his back, snus tobacco under his lip and a misogynistic worldview, he drives around on his scooter. This image of the primitive Norrlänning – a person from Sweden’s northernmost county – became ingrained with the 1996 movie The Hunters. Now Northern Sweden is hunting for people to carry out the so-called green revolution, and that image has to go.
The train to Russia stopped running. Lappeenranta limps on.
The borderless Nordic region turned out to be an illusion during the pandemic. It hit the Øresund region, border trade between Sweden and Norway and the citizens of Haparanda and Tornio. But Finland has an eastern border where traffic has ceased because of the pandemic. Today the war in Ukraine has made the situation even worse for Lappeenranta – the city with the closest links with Russia.
Russians in Finland "not fooled by Russian propaganda"
Maria Taina-Parviainen is one of many Russians who have moved across the border to Lappeenranta. 21 years ago she moved from the Leningrad region to take up an apprenticeship in Finland.
Fast track for refugees took opposite directions in Sweden and Norway
“Fast track was imported from Sweden, but came to Norway to die!” That is the subtitle of a chapter in a new book about how Norway’s welfare agency NAV has worked with inclusive workplaces, learning and innovation.
Young, smart and excluded from the Swedish labour market
It is not enough to be smart. For many young people, the door is still shut to large parts of the labour market. The organisation NU – Nolla Utanförskapet (End Exclusion) – works with businesses to open the door to those who are excluded. But is it exclusion or inclusion we should be discussing?
The hole that must be filled: the energy crisis and EU's green transition
There had never been so much money for the green transition in Europe as there was in February 2022. But then Russia started its war against Ukraine. Europe answered by cutting the import of gas and other fossil fuels from Russia. How will this impact on the green transition? Will it speed up or must someone pull the emergency brake? The answer might be both.
Danish government green flights plan causes turbulence
The Danish government has promised that the first carbon neutral domestic flights will operate from 2025 and that all domestic flights will be carbon neutral from 2030. Industry giants will start large-scale production of green aviation fuel even sooner. All good but not enough, says environment think-tank.
Finnish EU Green Capital kept the transition going
Many cities are fighting for the honour of becoming the European Green Capital. In Lahti, which held the title in 2021, the environmental work and green projects continue apace.
A fish beer, anyone? The Finnish brewery that went green
Beer and the environment might not be obvious bedfellows. But the little brewery Ant Brew in Lahti uses waste products that would normally have been thrown out in order to create new and exciting beers.
Reindeer herders want Norwegian wind farm demolished
Europe’s largest onshore wind power plant, built near Trondheim in Norway by Fosen Vind, could face dismantling after a supreme court win by indigenous reindeer herders.
The male role in the Nordics – in crisis or developing?
Two authors from Denmark and Sweden have written books on the male role – one concluding it is in crisis, the other believes it is evolving. Yet both underline the importance of jobs and highlight the negative consequences faced by men who cannot find one – especially among immigrants.
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