School, Refugee | Erna Solberg visited the adult education: – An incredibly important effort for integration

On Thursday, Erna Solberg visited Sola adult education to hear more about how they work to integrate refugees and get them into work. The visit concluded a two-day round trip for Solberg where school, competence and work inclusion have been the main focus.

– This is extremely important work. Primarily because it gives the opportunity to live a good life in Norway, but also because we are faced with a skills gap where everyone who can and wants to contribute must be given the opportunity to do so, says Solberg in a press release after the visit.

She believes that the Norwegian language and then a job are perhaps the most important building blocks for good integration.

– It is good that it is in focus here at Sola adult education, boasts Solberg.

Needs a boost

At Sola adult education, adult education, NAV and the municipality work closely together to help refugees through the integration program and get them into work. Here they have Norwegian courses and learn more about how to apply for and get a job. Work experience is an important first step for many.

Recently, the municipality invited the business community in Sola to an information meeting to get more refugees into work.

– Of the Ukrainian refugees, the statistics show that, unfortunately, a very low number have been employed. That is one of the reasons why we want to make a boost, said SLT+ coordinator in the municipality, Øyvind Sakkestad to Solabladet.

The municipality is therefore starting the project “Refugees in work”.

– The new project is a result of the fact that we have to get refugees into work more quickly. At the same time that many more refugees have arrived in the country and Sola municipality, it became natural to work a little differently. It is nothing new that we at Nav work towards business, but now we are making an extra push to get more contact with employers, says Erlend Grastveit, head of department in the refugee service.

Record number of refugees

After the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there has been a large increase in the number of refugees living in Sola municipality. From having remained stable at around 13–15 in the years before the war, the number has now exceeded 130. Both the employees of NAV, the municipality and Sola adult education pointed out that this gives the work a completely different scale than before. Erna Solberg believes that this makes integration and employment work even more important.

– Of course, it is a very special situation we are in right now, but that only makes the effort here even more important, Solberg asserts.

The visit to Sola adult education was the last stop on a longer tour of Rogaland for Solberg. Over the course of two days, she has visited schools, training offices, work inclusion measures, and arenas where the business world collaborates.

Schooling, competence, and getting more people into working life are some of the most important areas for Norway in the time to come, believes the leader of the Conservative Party.

– Then I am happy to see the good work that is being done, among other things, on vocational subjects in Rogaland. Among other things, I can mention Sandnes, which is now allocating money to start up a scheme with specialist teachers again after the government closed the scheme, concludes Solberg.