The education and science policy has a key position as the foundation of the well-being and competence of Finnish society.
The objective of the government is to make Finns the most skilled people in the world by 2020. The goal is that by 2020, Finland will be one of the top OECD countries in terms of key comparisons of skills among adolescents and adults, low numbers of school dropouts and the share of young people and working-age people who have completed a higher-level education. Differences between sexes in competence results, participation in education and the completion of education will be narrowed down and the heritability of education will be reduced.
Even though Finns are usually seen as a highly educated nation, this view is not altogether entirely accurate. At the moment, a little over one third of young adults have a university degree and about 85% have some type of degree higher than comprehensive-level.
As a part of the EU growth strategy (the EU 2020 strategy), Finland is committed to developing its key sections of society and economy so that the Finnish and European competence is enhanced, the well-being of citizens is improved and the sustainability of public economy can be secured.
Education and science policy plays a key part in the strategy, and in the national programme draft, Finland has agreed to improve the educational level of young people and reduce the number of those who finish their education early, etc. One of the tangible goals set by Finland as a part of the strategy is that at least 42% of those aged 30–34 will have completed a university degree. The government programme states that by 2020, more than 90% of those aged 20–24 will have a degree beyond the comprehensive level.