In Focus
Norway: Investing in Grey Gold
Norway is making a conscious effort to encourage more older people to stay in work longer. This move is aimed at fighting the myth that older people cannot keep up with developments and making it worthwhile for companies to hold onto their older workforce.
Sweden: The Activity Guarantee
Being unemployed for long periods is neither good for one's self-confidence, health or psychological state. If you cannot find a job quickly, your chances of finding a job lessen. Sweden is currently making a big effort to get the long-term unemployed back to work.
The Nordic Model - will it survive?
At the start of the 1990s, the question was asked whether the Nordic model could survive. Many employers claimed that collective agreements and central bargaining were not flexible enough to provide industry with favourable enough terms. The level of organisation among employees fell. Wage earners, too, advocated many individual solutions. But the model has proved to be more resilient than many believed.
Denmark: Flexible working arrangements and sheltered employment
It is better to change the workplace than to force people into early retirement. This is the catch phrase of a reform currently taking place in Denmark. New ways of working have been introduced: flexible working arrangements and sheltered employment.
Is Volvo a car or a computer?
The Nordic countries are well advanced in the use of the new technology. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden are at the forefront of Europe in terms of home PCs, Internet connections, and, not least, ownership of mobile telephones. But the lack of skilled labour can be an obstacle to continued rapid development, warn many experts.
Electronic jobs service attracts new visitors
In 1999, the Norwegian jobs website had 47 million hits. This was more than a quadrupling in terms of the previous year. In Sweden too, there is a great amount of interest in its jobs website, Platsbanken. On any day, 100,000 persons visit the site and read 600,000 adverts for jobs. The Swedish system will now form the basis for a European jobs database project.
The hunt for skills
A central feature of developments is the hunt for skilled personnel. Developments are taking place so fast that it is necessary for people to constantly upgrade their knowledge. For instance, it is estimated that there will be three generations of technology during a graduate engineering course. The various countries are now going in for skills updates.
The Dream Society
Rolf Jensen is the Director of The Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies. It is one of the world’s largest institutes for creating scenarios and making forecasts about the future. Nevertheless, at a meeting, he was unable to answer a simple question from one of his clients: What will follow the information society?
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