Investing in Youth: Finland

130 Pages·2019·4.369 MB·English

by  Oecd

Investing in Youth
FINLAND
In
v
e
s
t
in
g
in
Y
o
u
t
h
F
IN
L
A
N
D

Investing in Youth:
Finland
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The
opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official
views of OECD member countries.
This document, as well as any data and any map included herein, are without prejudice
to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international
frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
Please cite this publication as:
OECD (2019), Investing in Youth: Finland, Investing in Youth, OECD Publishing, Paris,
https://doi.org/10.1787/1251a123-en.
ISBN 978-92-64-49729-0 (print)
ISBN 978-92-64-52200-8 (pdf)
Investing in Youth
ISSN 2412-6330 (print)
ISSN 2412-6357 (online)
The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of
such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in
the West Bank under the terms of international law.
Photo credits: © Lars Lindblad/Shutterstock.com, © Rido - Fotolia.com, © Inmagine LTD/Blend.
Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/about/publishing/corrigenda.htm.
© OECD 2019
You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and
multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable
acknowledgement of OECD as source and copyright owner is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should
be submitted to [email protected]. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be
addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at [email protected] or the Centre français d’exploitation du droit de copie
(CFC) at [email protected].
FOREWORD │ 3

Foreword
As highlighted in the OECD Action Plan for Youth, successful engagement of young
people in the labour market is crucial not only for their own personal economic prospects
and well-being, but also for overall economic growth and social cohesion. Therefore,
investing in youth is a policy priority in all countries, including Finland, requiring
concerted action to develop education systems and labour market arrangements that work
well together.
Following the launch of the OECD Action Plan for Youth in May 2013, the OECD is
working closely with countries to implement the plan’s comprehensive measures in their
national and local contexts and to provide peer-learning opportunities for countries to
share their experience of policy measures to improve youth employment outcomes. This
work builds on the extensive country reviews that the OECD has carried out previously
on the youth labour market and vocational education and training (Jobs for Youth,
Learning for Jobs and Skills beyond School), as well as on the OECD Skills Strategy.
The present report on Finland is the tenth of the series “Investing in Youth”, which builds
on the expertise of the OECD on youth employment, social support and skills. This series
covers OECD countries and key emerging economies. The report presents new results
from a comprehensive analysis of the situation of young people in Finland, exploiting
various sources of survey-based and administrative data. It provides a detailed assessment
of education, employment and social policies in Finland from an international
perspective, and offers tailored recommendations to help improve the school-to-work
transition. Additional information related to this review can be found on the OECD
website (http://oe.cd/youth-finland).
This review is joint work by the Social Policy Division and Skills and Employability
Division of the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS). Sarah
Kups, Christopher Prinz and Marie-Anne Valfort prepared the report, under the
supervision of Veerle Miranda (project leader) and Monika Queisser (Head of the Social
Policy Division). Pauliina Patana contributed to the review as consultant and Fatima
Perez provided editorial support. The report benefited from useful comments provided by
Stefano Scarpetta (Director for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs).

INVESTING IN YOUTH: FINLAND © OECD 2019
4 │ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgements
The OECD Secretariat would like to thank the Ministry of Education and Culture and in
particular Anna-Maria Tenojoki, Jaana Walldén and Georg Henrik Wrede, for their
excellent support in carrying out this project and for organising the initial fact-finding
mission in April 2018. Anna-Maria Tenojoki deserves special thanks for her continuous
support throughout the review process with policy information and statistical support.
The OECD Secretariat is also grateful to Elisa Kaaja and Henni Axelin for ensuring a
successful completion of this project as well as to the numerous experts who shared their
knowledge about Finland’s education, employment and social policies for youth during
the fact-finding mission and provided feedback to a draft version of the report.
INVESTING IN YOUTH: FINLAND © OECD 2019
TABLE OF CONTENTS │ 5

Table of contents
Foreword ................................................................................................................................................ 3
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ 4
Executive summary ............................................................................................................................... 9
Key policy recommendations .............................................................................................................. 9
Assessment and recommendations ..................................................................................................... 11
How do Finnish youth fare in the labour market? ............................................................................. 11
Who are NEETs in Finland, and what are the risk factors? ............................................................... 12
Improving the transition from school to work ................................................................................... 12
Strengthening support for young people ............................................................................................ 15
Chapter 1. Youth employment and education in Finland ............................................................... 19
1.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 20
1.2. The education and employment performance of Finnish youth .................................................. 20
1.3. Finnish youth not in employment, education or training ............................................................ 25
1.4. Wrap-up ...................................................................................................................................... 34
References .......................................................................................................................................... 36
Chapter 2. Improving the transition from school to work in Finland ............................................ 39
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 40
2.1. Raising school completion rates in upper secondary education.................................................. 42
2.2. Easing the transition from upper secondary to tertiary education ............................................... 55
2.3. Speeding up labour market entry ................................................................................................ 63
Round-up and recommendations ....................................................................................................... 69
Notes .................................................................................................................................................. 73
References .......................................................................................................................................... 74
Chapter 3. Towards integrated services and integrated benefits for young people in Finland .... 79
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 80
3.1. A comprehensive but fragmented income support system ......................................................... 80
3.2. Benefit receipt among youth is high and benefit traps are significant ........................................ 85
3.3. Youth poverty is relatively high despite a generous benefit system ........................................... 92
3.4. Challenges for an easily accessible and generous benefit system ............................................... 94
3.5. Connecting benefits and employment services ........................................................................... 96
3.6. Unlocking the potential of the Youth Guarantee ...................................................................... 100
3.7. Making the most of the forthcoming regional government reform ........................................... 110
Round up and recommendations ...................................................................................................... 114
Notes ................................................................................................................................................ 119
References ........................................................................................................................................ 121

INVESTING IN YOUTH: FINLAND © OECD 2019
6 │ TABLE OF CONTENTS

Tables
Table 2.1. Study grants were considerably lowered for students without children ............................... 57
Table 3.1. The duration of unemployment benefit receipt is long for young people in Finland ........... 90
Table 3.2. Escaping from social assistance receipt is more difficult for youth in Finland than
escaping from unemployment benefits .......................................................................................... 91
Table 3.3. Long-term dependence on social security is frequent among youth in Finland ................... 91

Figures
Figure 1.1. Finland experienced two recessions during the past decade ............................................... 21
Figure 1.2. Employment rates are lower in Finland than in other Nordic countries ............................. 22
Figure 1.3. One in five young Finns combine work and education ....................................................... 23
Figure 1.4. Youth unemployment is high in Finland ............................................................................. 24
Figure 1.5. Young adults in Finland are highly educated ...................................................................... 25
Figure 1.6. The NEET rate in Finland is close to the OECD average ................................................... 26
Figure 1.7. Male and female NEETs have different motives for being inactive ................................... 28
Figure 1.8. Low educated Finns have a high risk of becoming NEETs ................................................ 29
Figure 1.9. NEET rates tend to be higher among foreign- than native-born youth ............................... 29
Figure 1.10. Humanitarian immigrants in Finland make up a larger share of immigrants than in
most other OECD countries........................................................................................................... 30
Figure 1.11. Life satisfaction is comparatively high among Finnish NEETs ........................................ 31
Figure 1.12. The share of young Finns with long NEET shares is comparatively small ...................... 33
Figure 1.13. Youth with longer NEET spells tend to have lower education levels and receive more
mental health treatment ................................................................................................................. 34
Figure 2.1. Finland faces the strongest shortage of high-skilled workers in the OECD ....................... 41
Figure 2.2. Finland has a high share of under-qualified workers .......................................................... 42
Figure 2.3. One fourth of vocational students in Finland have not finished their programme two
years after expected graduation ..................................................................................................... 43
Figure 2.4. A large share of Finnish students participate in both school-based and employer-led
career guidance .............................................................................................................................. 46
Figure 2.5. Nearly one in six pupils in compulsory schools receive intensified or special support ...... 47
Figure 2.6. One third of OECD countries have a higher compulsory education age than in Finland ... 51
Figure 2.7. The caseload of outreach workers varies considerably across Finnish regions .................. 53
Figure 2.8. Finland is the most selective of OECD countries that impose specific entry criteria in
higher education ............................................................................................................................ 56
Figure 2.9. The age at which students enter and leave tertiary education is amongst the highest in
the OECD ...................................................................................................................................... 56
Figure 2.10. Most students complement student grants with student loans .......................................... 58
Figure 2.11. In some countries more than one third of tertiary students graduate from short-cycle
programmes ................................................................................................................................... 62
Figure 2.12. Only one out of eleven young upper secondary students did an apprenticeship in
Finland, despite the importance of vocational education .............................................................. 63
Figure 2.13. Students in Finland need more time to complete tertiary education than those in the
OECD on average .......................................................................................................................... 67
Figure 3.1. Finland’s public social expenditure is among the highest in the OECD ............................. 81
Figure 3.2. The minimum required contribution period for unemployment benefits is rather short in
Finland while the maximum payment duration is relatively long ................................................. 82
Figure 3.3. Unemployment benefit levels in Finland are similar to the OECD average ....................... 82
Figure 3.4. Minimum-income benefits in Finland lift people just above the poverty line .................... 84
INVESTING IN YOUTH: FINLAND © OECD 2019
TABLE OF CONTENTS │ 7

Figure 3.5. Receipt of unemployment and social assistance benefits are both high in Finland ............ 86
Figure 3.6. Finnish NEETs are well covered by benefits compared with other countries .................... 87
Figure 3.7. High taxes and generous benefits pose a considerable challenge for re-activating youth
in Finland ....................................................................................................................................... 89
Figure 3.8. Youth poverty is high in Finland because young people leave parental home early .......... 93
Figure 3.9. Finland’s Youth Guarantee reaches a large share of its NEET population, with
outcomes broadly in line with those in other EU countries ......................................................... 103
Figure 3.10. Only one in three young jobseekers in Finland are in labour market programmes ......... 105
Figure 3.11. The range of services offered in Finland’s Ohjaamo centres is very diverse .................. 108

Boxes
Box 1. Key policy recommendations .................................................................................................... 18
Box 1.1. Humanitarian migrants in Finland .......................................................................................... 30
Box 2.1. The education system in Finland ............................................................................................ 40
Box 2.2. Cross-age peer career guidance in Denmark .......................................................................... 46
Box 2.3. Reform of general upper secondary education ....................................................................... 48
Box 2.4. Helsinki’s positive discrimination funding policy .................................................................. 49
Box 2.5. The benefits of raising compulsory schooling age ................................................................. 50
Box 2.6. Randomized control trial of the ‘Time Out! Getting Life Back on Track’ programme ......... 55
Box 2.7. Student loans in the United Kingdom ..................................................................................... 59
Box 2.8. The Swedish system of higher vocational education .............................................................. 62
Box 2.9. Social partners in apprenticeship policy development ............................................................ 65
Box 2.10. A European Union approach to high quality apprenticeships ............................................... 66
Box 2.11. External bodies supporting apprenticeship training .............................................................. 66
Box 3.1. Employment support for young people with mental health issues ....................................... 100
Box 3.2. Recent reforms of the Public Employment Service .............................................................. 102

Follow OECD Publications on:
http://twitter.com/OECD_Pubs
http://www.facebook.com/OECDPublications
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/OECD-Publications-4645871
http://www.youtube.com/oecdilibrary
OECD
Alerts http://www.oecd.org/oecddirect/

INVESTING IN YOUTH: FINLAND © OECD 2019