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Learning and work life can be seen as related (Billet 2001; Fjellström and Kristmansson, 2019) and research in VET context is undergoing a renaissance as research is growing (Andersson 2019; Michelsen, Stenström, Jørgensen, Olsen and Thunqvist 2018) and reviews regarding VET are still rare (Gessler and Siemer, 2020). This paper focuses on research in a Nordic perspective with an aim to identify and analyse published articles in relation to geography of authors, stated keywords and methods. The paper presents a scoping review of research in the field of learning and work life between 2015 and 2021 in a Nordic perspective. It is divided into three parts that follow the research questions. The first part presents an overview of the topics that are studied in the field of learning and work life within the Nordic countries. In the second part the focus is on the different methods that are used in the research field. The final part highlights the question related to region/university-specific topics within Nordic research on learning and work life.

Methodology: The methodological approach is a scoping research review. Web of science, ERIC, Scopus, SWEPub, Oria, BiblioteketDK, and Finna have been used to identify 1067 articles in the specific research area. All articles were divided into three groups that were analysed according to the following criteria: keywords, author´s affiliation, geographic areas of research and methodological approaches. This process resulted in a total of 886 articles as the analytical work also identified articles that didn't meet the search criteria. NVIVO and SciMAT were used in the analytical process.

Outcomes: In relation to what the articles claim to focus on, the keywords used in the different articles show how the authors classify and interpret their research. Preliminary results show differences in research topics in the Nordic countries. Further, common combinations of methods are interviews and observations. Thus, research in a Nordic perspective is in many cases following the same methodological design. Finally, the results indicate that there are differences in research focus from a geographical perspective.

References: Billett, S. (2020). Learning in the workplace: Strategies for effective practice. Routledge.Cobo, M. J., López‐Herrera, A. G., Herrera‐Viedma, E., & Herrera, F. (2012). SciMAT: A new science mapping analysis software tool. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(8), 1609-1630.Fjellström, M., & Kristmansson, P. (2019). Constituting an apprenticeship curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 51(4), 567-581.Gessler, M., & Siemer, C. (2020). Umbrella review: Methodological review of reviews published in peer-reviewed journals with a substantial focus on vocational education and training research. International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training, 7(1), 91-125.Michelsen, S., Stenström, M. L., Jørgensen, C. H., Olsen, O. J., & Thunqvist, D. P. (Eds.). (2018). Vocational education in the Nordic Countries. Routledge.

Rapporten är ett utvärderingsuppdrag från Samhällsbyggnad, en förvaltning vid Skellefteå kommun. Uppdraget utgår från en organisationsförändring inom Skellefteå kommun där flera förvaltningar sammanslogs till en större enhet, Samhällsbyggnad, vilket påverkat totalt cirka 500 medarbetare. Den nya organisationen trädde i kraft i januari 2015 och Samhällsbyggnads förvaltning önskade utvärdera förändringens effekter för att få ett underlag för ett fortsatt arbete som syftar till att uppnå ambitionen med förändringen.

Due to societal changes there is a growing need for distant and adult learning. The reason to participate in education and the choices that students make may differ. In this study the factors age, gender, rate of studies and parenthood have been analysed in order to see how these relate to different motivational factors for choosing a web-based course. The data has been based on a questionnaire, covering 1270 beginner students in the spring semester of 2011 and contains their background characteristics and items focusing on their motives. These could be categorized into four different motives: (1) Format, (2) Content, (3) Economic, and (4) Curiosity. The results showed that Format was regarded as the most important factor for choosing an Internet-based course, followed by Content, Curiosity and the Economic factor. Furthermore, group differences were investigated with respect to age, gender, parenthood and rate of study. The findings show that distant education fulfils an important function for mature students, women and students with children. These groups presumably consider the flexibility that web-based courses provide advantageous. Family situations or working-life obligations may contribute to this. Changes in people’s working lives are likely to continue, which presumably increases the demand for flexible learning situations.

Our globally connected world is characterized by growing social mobility and diversification of life trajectories. In the light of recent societal and economic developments people more often change careers. Individuals even have multiple career paths and they are expected to engage in lifelong learning. Universities are also called upon to make students more employable and to enhance their flexibility in the labour market, while Web-based learning also may open access and widen potential markets for the universities, motivating a larger and diverse group of students to participate in higher education. Due to these changes there is a growing need for flexible deliverance of education. Distant learning and adult learning take an important part in this. In a lifelong career perspective the need for people to participate in education may differ, as well as the educational choices that students make. This variety makes it necessary to study what factors are important for the educational choices of students. In this paper, different factors, such as age, gender, rate of studies and parenthood was analysed in order to see how these relate to different motivational factors for choosing a web-based course. The research focuses on the questions: Which students choose web-based courses and what are their motivations to do so?

The present study was based on a sample of 1 270 beginner students during the spring semester 2011 at web-based courses at the department of education, Umeå University. The data was based on a questionnaire covering the student´s background characteristics and a number of items focusing on the motives for choosing a distance learning course. The motives could be categorized into four different motives: (1) Format, (2) Content, (3) Economic, and (4) Curiosity. The results showed that Format was regarded as the most important factor for choosing an Internet-based course. The second most important motivational factor was Content, followed by Curiosity and Economic. Group differences were investigated with respect to age, gender, parenthood and rate of study. Mature students had higher ratings on the Format motivational sub-scale than younger students. However, for the Economic motivational sub-scale younger students had higher ratings than mature students. There were no age differences with respect to the Content and Curiosity motivational sub-scale. Females had higher ratings on Format motivational sub-scale than males. Similarly, females had also higher ratings on the Content motivational sub-scale than males. However, for the Economic motivational sub-scale males had higher ratings than females. There were no significant gender differences with respect to the Curiosity motivational sub-scale. Moreover, we examined whether there were differences in motivational ratings between students with and without children. Students with children had higher ratings on the Format motivational sub-scale than students without children. Similarly, students with children had also higher ratings on the Content motivational sub-scale than students without children. However, for the Economic motivational sub-scale, students without children had higher ratings than students without children. There were no differences between students with or without children on the Curiosity motivational sub-scale. Finally, we examined whether there were differences in motivational ratings between students admitted to half-time or full time studies. Students enrolled in full time studies had higher ratings on the Economic motivational sub-scale than students in half time studies. Similarly, full time students had also higher ratings on the Curiosity motivational sub-scale than half time students. There were no differences between full-time and half-time students with respect to the Format and Content motivational sub-scale.

The findings show that distant education fulfils an important function for mature students, women and students with children. These groups presumably consider the flexibility that web-based courses provide advantageous. Family situations or working-life obligations may contribute to this. Changes in people´s working lives are likely to continue, which presumably increases the demand for flexible learning situations. It would be of interest to collect and analyse more data that relates to the lifelong career development of students, covering the wide range of ages as suggested in the theme for this conference. Further studies may therefore also incorporate data that extensively shows what choices students make by adding more socio-economic factors for analysis.

In the following paper we discuss the issues of democracy (and human rights) from the point of view of education in two countries; South Africa and Sweden. The study´s point of departure is the ongoing globalisation of education policies that has been described by several authors. The paper examines the relationship between education and democracy in the context of emerging powerful global forces that are increasingly converging education policies of nations. The aim of our paper is to compare national policies on democracy and human rights, in relation to international policies with a view of understanding the culturally asymmetrical power representation of the ideas derived from international (Western) organizations such as UN, OECD, World Bank etc. With the rising interest for cosmopolitan theories on democracy it can be questioned whether supranational organisations contribute to the development of a cosmopolitan democracy that moves beyond current conceptions on nation-states, or if these developments cement the ideas of communitarians who hold that democracy cannot be dissociated from the state as a sovereign entity.

Against this backdrop this paper will focus on the following questions: Will globalisation strengthen or weaken democratic developments in education? What challenges and transformations present themselves within a Swedish and South African context? Have new global dynamics influenced educational development? Through reflections on the policies of Sweden and South Africa we want to highlight context specific issues and to note where these intersect with wider forces which are impacting upon education in more global (universal) way. These processes have certainly effects on national policy making and ultimately the implementation of these policies in teacher education and school classrooms. In order to avoid setting up a "North" versus "South" dichotomisation it seems more fruitful to focus on the dialectic of the global and the local. In the paper we begin to unpack some assumptions about democracy and its relationship to development and education in a wider perspective. We then focus on each of the countries and, finally, some of the local (and national) factors at play will be considered. 

International studies have indicated some of the major changes that are taking place in the field of education policy. Much of the debate focuses on the incorporation of global processes in the world of education. Europeanization of the policies concerning education is one aspect of the issues and it is argued that the Europeanization of Education occurs as an element of a wider process of globalisation in education. The theorisation of these processes is getting more attention also because these processes do require a new consideration on how policies are formed, shaped and directed. Several policy levels can be influenced by globalisation, but it can also work the other way around; globalisation is affected by the activities conducted at the different policy levels. The aim of the paper is to clarify the concepts of globalisation, Europeanization and multi-level governance and discuss how these processes affect education systems. The theoretical discussion will be linked to empirical evidence of these processes in a Swedish context, based on a study that focussed on the sub-national, national and supranational aspects of new policy formation. The main research problem focuses on the question how multi-level agenda setting and policy dissemination are taking place and what important factors are involved in these new forms of governance. The distribution of ideas and the activities of agents need more attention in the research on policy processes. This paper therefore also focuses on the key-players in the policy process. The theoretical framework for this research is provided by authors as Dolowitz, Masch, Dale, Taylor, Stone, Marginson and Rhodes, to mention a few. Theoretical concepts of policy transfer and policy diffusion are linked to studies concerning structural analysis of policy change. 

The research is based on a combination of policy documents at supra-national, national and sub-national levels and interviews with key- players at the national and sub-national level in a Swedish context. The main findings of this study show clear evidence of the aspects of multi-level educational governance in a European context. The processes show that governance takes place in networks and that these are both bottom-up and top-down steered.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and understand the introduction of entrepreneurship and enterprise projects in primary and secondary schools in the North of Sweden and to identify and analyse the driving forces and actors behind this process. In particular the influence and significance of education policy at supranational, national and subnational level for the introduction of entrepreneurship and enterprise in education are analysed. The main questions of the study have been:

• How and why have entrepreneurship and enterprise education come to the schools in the northern region of Sweden, in particular within the framework of the PRIO1 project?

• How were important stakeholders involved at the subnational level and how did they reason and act in relation to the introduction of entrepreneurship and enterprise in the schools?

• How are the concepts of entrepreneurship and enterprise education presented in policy documents at different policy levels?

The study wants to report on changes in education policy during recent years. Especially the emergence of international policy convergence and new forms of governance are among the factors that are considered. Drawing on a conceptual framework of structure and agency, the analyses in the empirical studies are informed by a combination of theoretical fields. Important contributions are rendered from the education policy literature. The first method consists of a policy study of documents produced by organisations at different levels (supranational, national and subnational). The purpose of this analysis is to capture the ideas and arguments that have been used but also to understand the context and driving forces for the introduction of entrepreneurship and enterprise in education. Starting from the supranational level, the analysis focuses mainly on two organisations, OECD and EU. These organisations were chosen because they are widely regarded as leading organisations in setting the supranational policy agenda for education. The document study consists of a selection of OECD documents that have been released during the period 1970 - 2006, as well as a selection of EU documents. The EU documents cover the last 15 years. Attention is paid to several documents at the national and subnational level as well. The second method is an interview study. The interview study aims to focus on some of the key stakeholders (agents/actors) that have been participating in the formation (initiation, financing and realisation) of a county wide project “PRIO1”, Priority Enterprise in Västerbotten, in the North of Sweden. In order to understand why and how these actors at the subnational level have become involved in the process, there exists a need to hear their arguments. The document study shows that there is interplay between the different levels, but intertextual aspects have also become visible. The policy drive and policy scope show the concatenation but also the complexity of the policy development. Education is increasingly related to economic policies, in particular through labour market policies. Although the concepts of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise have developed within the economic sector, they are penetrating the education and training systems of many countries. From the results presented in this study, it seems that lifelong learning has become the guiding principle for the amalgamation of education and the world of work, while learning is no longer equated with just schooling. The opening of the school towards the surrounding world is a characteristic development in all this, but it is also a process that certainly is stipulated by agencies and actors at different levels, as is shown in this study. The interviews with some stakeholders at the subnational level show that the promotion of entrepreneurship and enterprise in education is related to arguments for economic and societal development. The interviews also reveal some of the “bottom-up” aspects of the policy process. One of the important results of this study is that the education policy studies have to include the level beyond the national borders. The interplay between the different policy-levels (supranational, national and subnational) needs more attention in order to understand the transformation of the education system.

During recent years projects aimed at the introduction of entrepreneurship and enterprise education have increasingly been found in Swedish schools. This is certainly the case for many schools in the county of Västerbotten in the North of Sweden in which now all municipalities are participating in an overall project. The point of departure for this study is the questions that arise over which the driving forces behind this development are, especially since the concepts of entrepreneurship and enterprise education are not mentioned in the National Curriculum. In order to understand why and how entrepreneurship and enterprise education have come to the schools the paper reports on changes in education policy during recent years. Especially the emergence of international policy convergence and new forms of multi-level governance is among the factors to be considered. It will draw an overview of policy development at different levels and argues that national and local policy are increasingly affected by policy frameworks articulated by supranational agencies, such as OECD and EU, which leads to a convergence of education policy.  The paper will draw on theoretical and methodological frameworks of Giddens, Castells, and Ball, among others. What forces and agencies have contributed to this growing interest for enterprise education in Sweden and what happens at the local level?