Online archive - find the most current content at nordregio.org

Education and skills development


Joint Saami and Inuit Youth Capacity Building Project

Applicant: Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC)
Countries: Greenland, Finland, Norway, Sweden
Project start 2015, expected to be finalized in 2016.

The organization sees a major gap between the achievements and the implementation of the rights of the indigenous peoples, mainly because of the general lack of knowledge and information on those rights in the Saami and the Inuit communities - in this specific case among the indigenous youth. In this connection this project proposal will refer to the United Nations World Conference on Indigenous Peoples Outcome Document § 15. The project aims at setting up a one year study programme for 6 Saami and 2 Greenlandic students with leadership potential. Training will focus on human rights, sustainable development and environmental issues.


Arctic Council EALLU: Reindeer Herding Youth and Adaptation to Climate Change

Applicant: International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry (ICR),
Countries: Norway, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden
Project start 2015, expected to be finalized in 2017.

Future sustainability of Sámi reindeer husbandry might face major challenges related to the rapid changes in the Arctic. The project will, by researching the traditional cultural capabilities in Sámi reindeer husbandry in the Nordic Countries, focus on the opportunities embedded in traditional knowledge related to reindeer herder's food cultures to adapt to the challenges. The Arctic Council project EALLU will firstly, document indigenous traditional knowledge on food culture, including knowledge on the raw materials, knowledge about preparation and conservation methods, and knowledge on food courses/ recipes. Secondly the project will plan and implement an international seminar on Arctic indigenous food culture, involving Arctic indigenous reindeer herding youth, contributing to competence building, and bridging knowledge gaps between the generations of indigenous elders and youth on food culture in the circumpolar north as part of EAT Forum Stockholm. Thirdly the project will outreach traditional knowledge and food cultures of Arctic indigenous peoples by making a course and a reindeer herders cook book disseminated by using the website www.reindeerherding.org.


Environment, Climate and Nature in the Arctic. Education in and from a Nordic perspective

Applicant: FNF, Foreningerne Nordens Forbund
Countries: Denmark, Greenland
Project start 2015, expected to be finalized in 2017.

The project is intended to make comprehensive training materials available in the Arctic regions in Greenlandic, Sámi and Faroese. The educational material will be available on an educational platform, which is also the largest, unifying Nordic teaching platform today: nordeniskolen.org. The material focuses on two main areas: Language & Culture and Climate & Nature within the areas of Science, Social Sciences and Languages. While access to educational material will be available through a portal in the three languages, which opens up for increased cooperation between teachers and students across the Nordic region. The portal is already available in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and Icelandic.

The project will also create a unique opportunity to make new educational material on the Arctic and the Danish realms history available for the Nordic schools through cooperation with Express TV, which produces six documentaries about the Danish Common Wealth history and the Arctic. This will be available through the portal, while also developing new teaching materials on this subject. Last but not least, the project provides an opportunity to gain insight into the Arctic children's relation to climate and nature through interviews and footage carried by the award winning Greenlandic production Anorak Film.


Climate Change Teaching in Greenland

Applicant: Arctic Research Centre (ARC)
Countries: Greenland, Sweden, Finland
Project start 2015, expected to be finalized in 2017.

The goal of the project is to promote education in the Greenlandic community and enhance knowledge of the Arctic environment, nature and climate among Greenlandic students. It is aiming at strengthen the Greenlandic youth's interest in higher education through a deepening of their basic education in natural science and strengthen their understanding of the challenges and opportunities posed by globalization and climate change. This involves strengthening learning networks which will lead to the development of local competences in the use of communication technologies, especially long distance education and e-learning.

High school students and teachers are invited to follow courses on the topic of climate change at the GINR. This will be followed with workshops, in 2015, 2016 and 2017 to develop ideas and course material for the subsequent years.


Teaching sustainable use of energy & raw materials in an environment affected by climate change

Applicant: Nutaaliorfik (Grønlands innovationcenter, byggeri, energy, miljø og råstoffer)
Countries: Greenland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland
Project start 2015, expected to be finalized in 2017.

A sustainable use of natural resources such as renewable energy and raw materials require knowledge. This project aims to make the practical aspects and knowhow accessible for those students which in school are not motivated by the theoretical aspects.

Greenlandic Innovation Center for buildings, energy, environment and raw materials (Nuutaaliorfik) in Sisimiut has good quality facilities with the opportunity to demonstrate energy conversions and how Greenlandic materials can be applied in construction work.
To facilitate the learning of students from other parts of Greenland the work will include developing educational courses for teachers and to develop, adjust and test IT based lessons for other parts of Greenland.


Environment, Climate and Nature in the Arctic’s

Applicant: FNF (Foreningerne Nordens Forbund) – Confederation of Nordic Associations, Denmark
Countries: Greenland, The Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway 
Project start 2015, expected to be finalized in 2017.

The project’s aim is to make a comprehensive training materials available in the Arctic regions of Greenland (middle Greenland), Sami (Northern Sami) and the Faroe Islands. The educational material will be available on the educational platform, which is also the largest, unifying Nordic teaching platform today: nordeniskolen.org. The material focuses on two main areas: Language & Culture, and Climate & Nature within the areas of Science, Social Sciences and Languages. 

While the access to educational material becomes a part of the portal, other functions are also available in three more languages, which opens the possibility to increase cooperation between teachers and students all over the Nordic region, the portal is already available in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and Icelandic.

The project also creates a unique opportunity to make new educational material on the Arctic and the Kingdom of Denmark history available for the Nordic schools through cooperation with Express TV, which produces six documentaries about the history of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Arctic, which is made available through the portal, while developing own teaching materials on this subject. In the first year, there is also a collaboration with Sami language centre in Alta and the Greenlandic House in Copenhagen, which has skills and content that will be used for the development of the materials.

Finally, the project provides an opportunity to gain insight into Arctic children's relation to climate and nature through interviews and footage carried by the award winning Greenlandic production company Anorak Film. The objective is both to create a unique platform for cooperation between the Arctic and the other Nordic countries, to make a large curriculum available in the Arctic region and increase awareness and understanding of the special arctic conditions and performances that few school students outside the Arctic would know.


The Future of the North. Sustainability of Nordic countries

Applicant: Bifröst University, Iceland
Countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, The Faroe Islands, Germany
Project start and expected to be finalized in 2016.

The aim of the project is to bring scholars from the Nordic region, who will work together with researchers from outside the region to analyse critically the idea, if the Nordic states can be viewed as norms for entrepreneurs in the international and regional context when it comes to forming and implementing policies focusing on sustainability. A research network will be created, with representatives from all five Nordic states, as well as from the Faroe Islands. German scholars studying the Nordics will be also participating.

The research network will work on a research project where sustainability policies and practices in the Nordics will be analysed critically. Sustainability will be explored through the lenses of culture, from the perspective of politics and policy, through the role of the private sector and the behaviour of consumers. The same parameters will be used by all the researchers. The project will also involve the comparison of different cases and evaluating lessons learned and how the Nordic experience could be relevant for other regions.

The results will be published in a book called: The Future of the North. Sustainability in the Nordic Countries. The book will contribute to the knowledge base about sustainability in the Nordic countries and be a useful source, for example, as a textbook for university courses which focus on sustainability and corporate social responsibility.


20 years of Action – Telling the Story of Indigenous Peoples a Changing Arctic

Applicant: Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat
Countries: Greenland, Norway 
Project start and expected to be finalized in 2016.

The Arctic Council will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2016. One of its unique and most important features is the presence of Indigenous Peoples (Permanent Participants) working directly with state representatives. The role Indigenous Peoples have played over last 20 years has been decisive and has helped to determine the direction and evolution of the council. But it is not the beginning of the story. Indigenous Peoples have been responding to change for decades and sometimes centuries. The current era of globalization in the Arctic is simply the latest phase. In the next few years the role of Indigenous Peoples will likely increase – at the Arctic Council and in other international fora. To expand knowledge about Indigenous Peoples in Arctic and mark the Arctic Council anniversary, IPS and GRID-Arendal are developing a new education platform about the role of the Permanent Participants at the Arctic Council, and the role Indigenous Peoples have played in Arctic environmental policy and politics. Using an interactive, Internet based story map format, this project will be targeted at a high-school age audience. The project outputs – the story map, a publication and visually compelling poster – will be designed to educate Arctic audiences about the role Indigenous People have played, but also educate audiences outside the Arctic about how the massive environmental and globalization challenges are being met in the Arctic. The project will also reflect the significant role played by the Nordic Indigenous Peoples in the development of the Arctic Council.