We look into graduates from Troms and Finnmark who completed one of the following welfare educations in the academic year 2016/2017: Kindergarten teacher, teacher, nurse, social worker, psychology and medical education.
A key question in the project has been whether decentralized university and college education leads to a greater degree of candidates remaining in the local area after graduation.
67 percent of welfare candidates raised in Troms and Finnmark also received their education in Troms and Finnmark. This applies to the majority of those who studied psychology and medicine, and a smaller part of the welfare candidates who studied teacher training. One in three welfare candidates raised in Troms and Finnmark took their education in other counties.
Two years after completing welfare education, 72 per cent of all welfare candidates were living in Troms or Finnmark. There is a larger proportion of the welfare candidates who settle in Troms and Finnmark after completing their education compared to candidates who took other educations (63 per cent).
44 per cent of the welfare candidates were living in the municipality where they grew up two years after completing their education. A further 8 per cent lived in a neighbouring municipality, i.e. a municipality that shares a border with the municipality they grew up in. 20 percent lived in another municipality in Troms and Finnmark.
90 per cent of welfare candidates from Finnmark who completed their education in Finnmark, also live in Finnmark two years later. The same applies to 85 per cent of the welfare candidates from Troms who also completed their education in Troms.
The fact that the welfare candidates largely chose to take their education in Troms or Finnmark, and not least that it was possible to take the education in these areas, probably has a bearing on the fact that the majority also lived in the same county they grew up in after completing their education. Decentralized education can play an important role in ensuring the production of, but also access to, desirable welfare candidates. The report also finds a trend in that the proportion of welfare candidates who move back to Troms or Finnmark is higher the closer the county is geographically to Troms and Finnmark.
Welfare candidates who completed kindergarten teacher training mostly lived in Troms or Finnmark after completing their education. There was also the highest incidence of living in one's own municipality of upbringing after completing education among kindergarten candidates. Compared to candidates within the other welfare programmes, a lower proportion of candidates within psychology were living in Troms or Finnmark two years after completing their education.
There was also a larger proportion of welfare candidates whose parents had not completed higher education among those who were living in Troms or Finnmark two years after completing their education. This can be seen in connection with the type of education they pursued, where less than half of the welfare candidates within social worker, nursing and kindergarten teacher education have parents with higher education themselves. These welfare candidates are the ones who most often live in Troms and Finnmark, and also in the municipality where they were raised, two years after finishing their education.