– Our staff need to gain new knowledge about dementia and person-centred care, and at the same time get used to new systems, for example, a new electronic patient record system. This means that the employees have to acquire a lot of new knowledge at once and find a common level where everyone can keep up,” says care manager Linda Heinola.
Approximately 80 employees work in elderly care at Oasen. The goal of participating in the project is clear: to create more job satisfaction and motivation among the staff, which can improve the care and life quality for the residents.
–I would like to see that project has a real impact on the residents. It is not just about providing training for the employees but about improving the lives of the residents in the care centre, says Victoria Nylund, physiotherapist at Oasen and a participant in NLL’s new project on workplace learning.
Learning circles is a model for strengthening staff competencies and creating a shared professional platform where knowledge is developed collectively. This can be applied not only in Åland but also in Norway.
–We want to bring learning closer to practice. The learning circle model allows for direct knowledge sharing among staff. It fits perfectly with our work supporting the needs of municipalities, says Tonny Kværne, project worker and physiotherapist at the Centre for Development of Nursing Homes and Home Care Services (USHT) in Telemark, Norway.
New practice-oriented approaches to learning
Tonny Kværne works at USHT, which supports 17 municipalities in strengthening competencies of staff in the health and care sector. USHT is anchored in the municipalities with support from the Norwegian Directorate of Health.
–Our centre organises networks and courses, and we assist with the implementation of national plans such as the Dementia Plan 2025 (Demensplan 2025). Our role is to translate national goals into specific learning activities that make sense locally,” explains Tonny Kværne.
He views participation in the learning circles project as an important opportunity to develop methods that support the needs of municipalities.
–It is important for us to test new ways of working with learning that are more practice-oriented. It is about giving employees the opportunity to take responsibility for their own learning and development, he says.
Learning circles – a Nordic model for innovation and learning
Learning circles have been developed as a Nordic model for innovation and learning, drawing on traditions of participant-driven learning while offering new methods to tackle complex challenges in working life.
The model is based on co-creation, where participants are active co-creators of the learning content. It draws on concrete problems from their own experiences, with a focus on knowledge sharing and collective reflection. A successful learning circle can be the catalyst for long-term changes in work culture.
The learning circle project officially started on 11 November 2025, with participants from five public workplaces in different Nordic countries. The project is facilitated by NLL with the goal of contributing to the Nordic Council of Ministers’ strategy to make the Nordic region the most sustainable and competitive region in the world by 2030.
By testing learning circles as a method for competence development, the project could help solve one of the biggest challenges in elderly care: how to ensure employees have the necessary knowledge and motivation to cope with an increasingly complex everyday life. This involves developing a learning culture:
–We hope that the project can lay the foundation for a sustainable method of competence development that can be used in many municipalities. It is not just a course – it is a way of thinking about learning, says Tonny Kværne.
Facts about the Learning Circle project
The following workplaces from the health and care sector are participating in the project during the period 2025–2027:
- Jönköping Municipality (Sweden)
- Copenhagen Municipality (Denmark)
- Porsgrunn Municipality (Norway)
- Oasen Care Centre (Åland)
- Notodden Municipality (Norway)
The project is part of NLL’s Network for Learning in the workplace, which consists of representatives from trade unions, employers’ organisations, researchers, and professionals within the health and care sector from Norway, Denmark, Finland, Åland, Sweden, and Iceland.
