Upper secondary education, 2005

About 29 percent of apprentices in 2005 were women. Building and construction trades, engineering and mechanical trades and electrical trades had the most apprentices in 2005 with 6 000, 5 800 and 5 400 apprentices respectively. The highest percentage increases were however registered in woodworking trades and sales and service with slightly above 19 per cent each.

There were 181 800 pupils in autumn 2005, an increase of 8 000 or 4.6 per cent since the previous year.

"Everybody" takes upper secondary education

Almost 91 per cent of all 16-18 year olds in Norway were registered as a pupil or an apprentice in upper secondary education as at 1 October 2005. The proportion of pupils and apprentices with immigrant background were lower though, with an average of 76 per cent. Participation in upper secondary education is much higher among persons born in Norway with two foreign-born parents than among first generation immigrants. The participation rate was 88 and 71 per cent respectively.

Vocational candidates had the best results

Approximately 71 300 pupils and apprentices achieved general certificate, vocational qualification or entrance requirements to tertiary education in 2004/2005. Candidates who sat for vocational examinations performed better than those in certificate courses. About 93 per cent of vocational candidates passed their examinations compared with 77 per cent of pupils. Pupils in health and social had the best results with an 86 per cent pass-rate, while 97 per cent of the vocational candidates in media and communication passed their examinations.

Tables:

• Table 1 Completed educational programmes in upper secondary education, by gender and results. School year 2004/05
• Table 2 Vocational examination candidates, by category and results. School years 1998/99-2004/05
• Table 3 Pupils, apprentices, students and participants in upper secondary education, by age, type of school/institution and gender. 1 October 2005
• Table 4 Pupils and apprentices in upper secondary education, by area of study, grade and county of residence. 1 October 2005
• Table 5 Pupils and apprentices in upper secondary education, by area of study. Percentage of women. 1 October 2005
• Table 6 Pupils and apprentices in upper secondary education, by immigrant background, immigration category and gender. 1 October 2005
• Table 7 Pupils and apprentices in per cent of registered cohorts 16-18 years, by immigrant background, immigration category and gender. 1. October 2005