The Nordic model of Lifelong Learning

TLDR

The Nordic welfare state, with its demanding equity standard and institutional framework, addresses lifelong learning amid economic globalisation and neo‑liberal pressures by recognising market failures and ensuring broad participation. The study finds that Nordic countries achieve high lifelong learning participation with low inequalities, underscoring the crucial role of welfare‑state institutions in sustaining such outcomes.

Abstract

This article explores how the so called Nordic welfare state, with its specific institutional make up, handles Lifelong Learning in a time characterised by the challenges of economic globalisation and the hegemonic impact of the neo‐liberal agenda. The analysis reveals a high participation in the Nordic countries in Lifelong Learning and, in comparison to other countries, low inequalities. This can be directly linked to a state that sets a very demanding equity standard and has developed an institutional framework to support this ambition. This model explicitly recognises market failures in contributing to a system of Lifelong Learning for all. The findings support the growing awareness in the literature that those forecasting the end of the welfare state had misunderstood and/or undervalued the important impact of the specific institutions that constitute the welfare state itself.