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WORKING IN NORWAY

What foreign workers in Norway should know about regulated professions

Some jobs or professions in Norway require accreditation of qualifications or education obtained in another country before you can work in your desired field.

Pictured is somebody hard at work on their laptop.
There are a few things you should know about regulated professions in Norway, which require you to get your qualifications recognised. Pictured is somebody hard at work. Photo by Matheus Marsiglio on Unsplash

What are regulated professions? 

Norway has 161 regulated professions in which some requirements must be met to work in that role. If you were educated or trained outside of Norway, you would need to have your education, training or qualifications recognised by Norwegian authorities to get certain jobs.

Regulated professions cover an extensive range of industries. NOKUT (the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education), an independent body under the Ministry of Education and Research, has a list of sectors with regulated jobs and information on where to apply to get your qualifications recognised.

How do you get foreign qualifications recognised? 

There are 15 agencies responsible for checking and verifying whether qualifications and training obtained outside of Norway is of the required standard to work in a regulated job.

Additionally, many industries have requirements outside of having your training and qualifications verified.

For example, healthcare workers must have their written and verbal Norwegian language proficiency assessed and may be sent on additional courses to learn about the country’s health system. Applicants must cover the cost of additional language training. 

Most, but not all, professions are regulated by the EU Professional Qualifications Directive, which seeks to streamline the process of getting education and qualifications authorised if they were obtained in a country within the EU or EEA (EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway).  

The process can be a lot trickier if you received your education outside of the EEA, and may involve extra steps. In almost all cases, agencies responsible for professions that require a certain skill set or qualifications ask non-EEA applicants to contact them directly. Some agencies may also charge a fee to verify your qualifications or translate them into either English or Norwegian.

In some cases, foreigners can use a European Professional Card (EPC), an electronic procedure in which the country in which you gained your professional qualification can confirm its legitimacy. For example, you can apply for an EPC if you are a real estate agent, mountain guidepharmacist or physiotherapist.  

How long can the process take? 

Despite the EU Professional Qualifications Directive streamlining part of the process, it can take months or sometimes years. This is partly due to the need for language skills or extra training in some professions before applicants are given the green light to look for jobs in industries that may be regulated.

If you are you a foreign resident in Norway who works in a regulated profession, we would love to hear your experiences of getting your training or qualification recognised to work in the country.

Getting education verified for a non-regulated profession

Some employers in non-regulated professions may also want to confirm the validity of your prior education.

This ensures that the level of education you received is of equivalent quality or standard to a comparable Norwegian qualification.

In most cases, you won’t need to have your education formally recognised to use your diploma. But, it may help with job applications as having your prior education recognised by Norwegian authorities can act as a seal of approval and help your application stand out.

NOKUT evaluates the status of the educational institution and qualification in the country where it was acquired, along with the duration and level of the programme.

Degrees from several countries, such as the UK, Nordics, and Australia, can be automatically recognised. This comes in the form of a statement that can be downloaded and confirms that NOKUT recognises your certifications.  

The process for having vocational training approved is a bit more thorough and comes with more conditions. The training and qualifications must be equivalent to skills, competence or knowledge to a Norwegian crafts or journeymen’s certificate. Additionally, the qualification must have been at least three years in duration, with at least one year of documented practical training.

If NOKUT doesn’t recognise the qualification, you will need to either apply to take vocational education in Norway, apply to take the Norwegian crafts certificate, the praksiskandidat or apply to train for the Norwegian crafts certificate while you are working.

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For members

OSLO

What commuters need to know about travel in and out of Oslo

Living outside Oslo is considerably cheaper and has other perks, too, such as a more relaxed pace of life. As a result, commuting into the capital has become increasingly popular.

What commuters need to know about travel in and out of Oslo

Rent and house prices have seen more people decide to live outside Oslo and commute in for work.

There are several other reasons, besides money, that people would want to commute into the capital. They may have flexible working hours and prefer to live in a quieter location.

They may also want to live closer to nature or, if they have children, be closer to their children’s extended family.

Still, there are quite a few things you should know about commuting in and out of Oslo.

READ ALSO: Everything you need to know about Norway’s commuter tax deductions

What are the pros?

In other cities, London is an example, and it’s not uncommon to hear stories of workers who commute two hours into the city each day.

Even some people living in large cities like Tokyo, London, and New York will spend an hour each way just getting across the city to work.

Thankfully, this isn’t the case in Oslo. Given how small the city is and the different transport options available, long commutes really don’t need to be the case when living outside of Oslo.  

Trains from towns like Ski and Lillestrøm can reach Oslo in 10 minutes. Even if you head a bit further out to Asker, the train only takes 20 minutes, while from Drammen, the commute is about 30 minutes.

A bit further out, the commute from Drobåk can be done in around 40 minutes. Meanwhile, the train from Kongsberg takes just over an hour.

There are also plenty of options, there is a pretty robust network of busses ferrying workers into Oslo Bus Terminal everyday, there are regional trains, many choose to drive, and there are even ferries across the Oslofjord you can choose to take. 

The other pros, as we’ve mentioned, are being able to live in a calmer environment, being closer to nature, and saving money on rent or mortgage payments.

What are the costs?

For most, public transport may well end up being the way they get to work, as in some cases it can be quicker than driving.

Given how common toll roads are, the cost of running a car, when you also take into account fuel and insurance, can add up.

It’s also hard to put an estimate on the cost of running a car as it will depend on the fuel economy, route you take, distance your drive and whether the car needs regular repairs.  

The commuting cost for public transport will be easy to calculate if you live in the Akershus region. This is because public transport firm Ruter is responsible for the Akershus, which surrounds Oslo.

Essentially, the cost of a ticket (when using Ruter’s yearly travel ticket) ranges between 15,894 for two zones, 22,845 kroner for three zones, and the same for travel across all zones.

When using the train with Vy, the cost of a season pass in areas where Ruter operates is the same as that of Ruter.

Given that Oslo is the most expensive area to rent, the money you save on rent is unlikely to be eaten up by the cost of a rail ticket.

Are there any downsides?

Yes. The main issue for those commuting in and out of Oslo via train is punctuality. In recent years, train traffic has become much less punctual, and services have been heavily affected by signal failure.

More than 700 signal failures have occurred over the past five years, according to figures from network rail operator Bane Nor.

Such failures are most common when traffic from Oslo Central Station is at its peak, such as rush hour.

During the first six months of 2024, around 76 percent of rush hour trains have been on schedule, which is well below the target of 85 percent.

Capacity has also been an issue. Despite how frequently the trains run, they can still be overcrowded during peak hours.

There are plans to address this, as double-decker trains will be introduced in the coming years on regional trains in eastern Norway (these are trains that carry the R designation). However, these plans don’t provide an immediate solution to the issue, as they may not be in place for another 5-6 years.

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