In order to get refugees and immigrants into the labor market more quickly, the Government proposes to let them have their real skills assessed in other than language such as Norwegian and Sami.
The Government wishes to use real-time expertise as a means of getting immigrants and refugees into the workforce faster and to reach their goals, the Ministry of Education and Research stated in a press release.
“In order to succeed with integration, it is crucial that immigrants use the competence they have from their home country as quickly as possible. There are many who have good educations and practical experience that they cannot account for in Norwegian, before they had to learn was the language well enough. Therefore, we believe it is advisable to open up assessments in other languages,” says State Secretary Julie Midtgarden Remen (H) in the Ministry of Education and Research.
All competence acquired through formal, non-formal or informal learning is to be considered as prior learning. According to the current regulations, real-time competence assessment will pass on either Norwegian or Sami, which creates challenges for immigrants and refugees who have recently arrived in Norway.
Remen believes it is important to make sure that more people are show and document their competence at an early stage, so that they can become more self-reliant and come into work.
Furthermore, the Government proposes to make a change in the regulations, which will give county authorities the opportunity to assess whether there is a need for a competence assessment in another language.
Trials have already been made with good results in several counties, according to Remen. Trial projects are ongoing in Nordland, Trøndelag, Vestfold, Vest-Agder and in the municipality of Oslo.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
