Contribution to the Green Paper on Learning Mobility

Oppland county authority underlines in its response how important it is for Norway, as a non-EU member, to participate in the European exchange programmes. In Norway, all educational activities on primary and secondary levels have to be free of charge for the pupils, including international activities. This means that the schools cannot organise study trips etc. if the pupils have to contribute financially themselves. Consequently, mobility activities in Norwegian schools must be financed through the European exchange programmes. Furthermore, they provide us with partners and networks that would otherwise be difficult to find.

The response also points out that the school management has to be strongly involved in the international work and make sure that necessary resources are allocated. This is also a responsibility for the school owner (municipalities, county authorities and state). Internationalisation has to be considered equally important as other tasks.

The European Commission asked specifically for examples of good practice, and several examples from Oppland were mentioned in the contribution, one of them being Oppland county authority's regional office for apprentices who wish to take a part of their training abroad. The exchanges are financed through the Leonardo programme, and the office is responsible for information, individual guidance, submitting applications, preparing the apprentices, contact with businesses abroad, following up on each student while they are abroad, reporting to the programme, etc. This office has now expanded to being a joint project with the neighbouring county, Hedmark. They have developed specialist competence on the Leonardo programme and have succeeded in increasing the activity every year since the office was established.