Foreword

The world of work is changing. Digitalisation, globalisation, and population ageing are having a profound impact on the type and quality of jobs that are available and the skills required to perform them. The extent to which individuals, firms and economies can reap the benefits of these changes will depend critically on the readiness of adult learning systems to help people develop and maintain relevant skills over their working careers.

To explore this issue, the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs has undertaken an ambitious programme of work on the functioning, effectiveness and resilience of adult learning systems across countries. This includes the creation of the Priorities for Adult Learning (PAL) dashboard for comparing the readiness of each country’s adult learning system to address future skills challenges, as well as a cross-country report, Getting Skills Right: Future-Ready Adult Learning Systems, which showcases relevant policy examples from OECD and emerging countries. The Directorate is also carrying out a series of in-depth country reviews of adult learning systems to offer a comprehensive analysis of the key areas where policy action is required.

This report on Continuous Learning in Working Life in Finland was prepared by Anja Meierkord and Anna Vindics from the Skills and Employability Division of the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs under the supervision of Glenda Quintini (Skills team manager) and Mark Keese (Head of the Skills and Employability Division). Helpful comments were provided by Stefano Scarpetta (Director for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs), as well as Alessia Forti and Katherine Mullock (Skills and Employability Division).

The report benefited greatly from discussions with Finnish experts, officials, employer federations, trade unions, academics and education institutions during two missions of the OECD team to Finland in March and July 2019. It also profited from comments by participants in a validation workshop organised in Helsinki in November 2019 and written comments to the draft version provided by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. Special thanks are given to Petri Haltia (Ministry of Education and Culture), Kirsi Heinivirta (Ministry of Education and Culture), Kimmo Ruth (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment) and Aleksi Kalenius (formerly Permanent Delegation for Finland to the OECD and UNESCO).

This report is published under the responsibility of the Secretary General of the OECD, with the financial assistance of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The views expressed in this report should not be taken to reflect the official position of OECD member countries.