European and National Strategies Supporting Development and Implementation of Continuing Engineering Education at Scandinavian Universities

Lifelong learning (LLL) and continuing engineering education (CEE) have been on the European Union’s agenda for almost three decades, formally initiated by the European Year of Lifelong Learning in 1996 and reinforced with several initiatives targeted at LLL since then. The current initiative, the European Year of Skills 2023, aims to promote a mindset of reskilling and upskilling. Nonetheless, before 1996, some universities were already developing diverse CEE activities and collaborating with external stakeholders such as the local industry. Many of these activities, however, have been initiated by passionate university staff or based on personal relationships within the organization. CEE activities have therefore, for most universities, been an unregulated and sideline area, and at some institutions, it is organized in private units associated with the university. This is despite the fact that the individual Scandinavian countries have national education policies regarding continuing education (CE), and each university has more or less explicit visions and strategies for CE activities. This research aims to answer the question of how European initiatives and Scandinavian national strategies support the implementation and development of CEE. Additionally, it will attempt to predict the future of CEE in Scandinavian countries by examining the beliefs of actors in CEE. The study will document the current state of initiatives and strategies and will be based on twenty interviews from ten Scandinavian universities.