4 Basic Programme - pedagogics, progression, and professional competences

Once daily life at the vocational college has taken shape after the first few introductory weeks, several issues still remain that are crucial to student well-being and to retention:

• Structure and overview based on the small teaching team, the contact teacher, and the active use of Elevplan.
• Rapid and consistent follow-up that takes student diversity into consideration. Schools have many tools and methods that can be used when students run into problems at school or in their private lives, or when they are close to dropping out.
• The balance between focus on the individual student and focus on the group.

Positive experiences with Elevplan

The basic programme contains many goals and sub-goals. It can be difficult for the student to gain an overview of these goals and of the basic programme's cohesive principles. Elevplan and the personal education plan are tools that can help students create a professional framework and focus. The extent to which Elevplan is implemented varies from school to school. Common to all schools, however, is the observation that teachers and students are pleased with this tool. Elevplan can be used as an overall framework for the individual student; it contains goal and sub-goal descriptions, the personal education plan, and information about absenteeism. Elevplan gives students a chance to monitor their own situation and progress, and some masters as well are beginning to use it to track their apprentices' progress.

Several of the vocational colleges set schedules for one to five weeks at a time, so that students always know what is about to happen. Especially for younger students and those from ethnic minorities, well-structured frameworks and mutually understood rules and regulations are crucial for their sense of orientation and to prevent them from feeling lost.

Differentiation

Shortened basic programme

Vocational colleges are aware that attention to students with learning or personal and social difficulties must not be at the cost of well-functioning students. Schools attempt in various ways to provide for differentiation in materials and in the design of assignments, in order to assure that achievers be sufficiently challenged. The Building and Construction entryway at Aarhus Technical College has designed an introductory competence assessment process so that the teaching team can decide whether a student needs greater challenges or perhaps a shortened basic programme. The school is of the opinion that there is no particular benefit to giving an endless series of extra assignments to high-flyers. If a student has attained the main goals of the basic programme, then a shortened basic programme can be a real option. The achievers want to get going with their apprenticeship. This flexibility on the part of the school emphasizes the fact that students' professional competences are taken seriously.

Turbo classes and enterprise-oriented projects

Hamlet (a technical college in Northern Zealand) employs several models to provide for the needs of achievers; the “turbo” basic programme, programmes for crossover students who have completed general upper secondary education, and enterprise-oriented school projects. The enterprise-oriented projects, constructed so that they fit the Framework Regulation on the Basic Course in Vocational Education and Training, are integrated as part of the curriculum and are based on the personal education plan. Students solve real problems that are formulated by their present - or by a potential - apprenticeship enterprise.

Pedagogical instruments

Motivation is the most important driver

Student motivation is crucial for teaching and for being able to help the individual student. Students and the vocational colleges express the belief that when the individual student is motivated, then it is of secondary importance if he or she should have some difficulties along the way. On the other hand, school response to those students who just do not care or do not bother needs to be rapid and unequivocal.

Use of job advertisements and branch orientation sessions

Vocational colleges feel that it is easier to maintain student motivation when learning activities are concrete and directly relevant to branch professionalism, or when they are based on real enterprise-related problems, as in the Hamlet example above. Another instrument is the use of job advertisements so that students can get a realistic picture of the skills and competences that are in demand in the labour market. The Food Production and Catering entryway at Aalborg Technical College often invites branch employees to talk about real, everyday life at work. Aalborg Business College arranges an annual branch orientation day. Participating enterprises are encouraged to send their own apprentices so that they can talk to students at the school. Aalborg Business College feels that these arrangements help many students with their clarification processes, and eliminate prejudices and the rosy picture of what work really is like in the various branches.

Enterprise-located learning activities

Vocational colleges are making increasing use of short-term enterprise-located learning placements during the basic programme as an element in students' personal education plan. This targets students who are unsure of their direction and who have lost motivation and are close to dropping out. There is evidence that this instrument works. First, students get a positive “aha!” feeling that helps clarify their situation and boosts their level of motivation. Second, the process sometimes leads to an apprenticeship agreement. Third, the enterprise-located period gives the enterprise a chance to try out having apprentices before actually signing any apprentice contracts. Some schools, however, are reluctant to use enterprise-located activities with the least motivated students, since the schools want to maintain good relationships with enterprises.

Contact with students in the main programme is a motivating factor

Contact with students from the main programme can be a motivating factor that enables basic programme students to develop a greater sense of focus on their long-term goals. Contact can occur when for example Food Production and Catering students from the basic and the main programmes work together on a large project, or hairdresser students in the basic programme get a chance to follow everyday life in the main programme and experience first hand what they are going to learn and be allowed to do on their own. Main-programme students can also be invited to describe life in the main programme to basic-programme students.

Contact teacher, the teaching team, and consultations

Rapid follow-up

A recurring theme of the best practice study is the importance of the framework composed of the contact teacher and the teaching team. Students feel that they are being seen, that there is a watchful eye, and that they know where to go for help. Students feel that the small teaching team can respond rapidly, can make demands of the students, and can act unequivocally, all of which are important for student motivation and learning behaviour, and all of which give the student a sense of direction. A prerequisite though, is that the teaching team functions as a team.

If students are to find their place in life, it is important that they get to know themselves and become acquainted with the demands set by the outside world. Regular consultations with the contact teacher help transform personal and vocational goals into something tangible, and help re-orient students who have become sidetracked. The contact teacher can listen, but can also offer professional assistance if necessary.

Self-reflection and smileys

Vocational colleges organize the contact teacher function in various ways. Some have weekly scheduled appointments. Others arrange evaluation consultations every fifth week. Students at the Meat Processing School, Roskilde Education Centre, have to produce a written self-evaluation as preparation for consultations. This forces students to reflect on their own situation. The Technology and Communication entryway at the Northwest Jutland Technical College has developed a smiley system which students and teachers use to attune mutual expectations.

Elevplan – an instrument for goal planning

Some schools include Elevplan as an element in their formalized consultations, using, for example, the student's sub-goals as a point of departure. Elevplan can thus be a tool for educational and professional counselling that facilitates realistic planning and gives the student a better overview of how to reach long-term goals.

Informal consultations crucial for retention

All the vocational colleges state that ongoing follow-ups of the individual student by means of informal consultations and dialogues are just as important, and are crucial for student retention. Students' problems do not adhere to school schedules.

Special student groups

Some students continually challenge behavioural codes: Rules and norms are ignored. The response to this often lies in teacher experience and in an armada of non-traditional tools, rather than in the traditional role of the vocational teacher. Expulsion can be used as a final step. This has a preventive function in some cases, and can be used to avoid demoralization of the large group of students who are primarily focused on their vocational education programme.

Dealing with absenteeism

Students feel that there is a watchful eye that reacts promptly when they skip workshops or classes or do not hand in their work, and this has a preventive effect. But students also have to learn to take their share of responsibility. Some vocational colleges register absenteeism in Elevplan, so that the student and perhaps the master can follow-up; others use Elevplan to give students the responsibility for registering their own attendance. This makes a positive contribution to the development of student responsibility.

Good morning and goodbye

In addition to registering absenteeism, several vocational colleges focus on absenteeism patterns such as certain days of the week, times of the day, or subjects. At the Commerce, Clerical Education, and Finance entryway at CEUS (Storstrøm Business and Technical College), students with a pattern of early-morning absenteeism are assigned to the “good morning” team which must greet the entryway manager in the morning. A similar system is in effect for the “goodbye team” in the afternoon.

The "dungeon"

The last resort before expulsion at the Food Production and Catering entryway at Aalborg Technical College is time served in the “dungeon”. The dungeon is the responsibility of one of the more experienced teachers who is highly respected by the students. The teacher runs a workshop in the basement where students participate in “school-enterprise-located” activities. Students work on specially organized projects that are written into the personal education plan. Most vocational colleges assess that a period of time in the dungeon is often highly beneficial.

Students from ethnic minority backgrounds

Students from ethnic minority backgrounds have to overcome many barriers if they are to complete their vocational education. Even if they have passed their supplementary Danish courses, there is still a vocational terminology and jargon that can be difficult to grasp. Extra efforts in the development of a pre-vocational language can be built into the educational programme structure, and can make a difference. Students from ethnic minorities rarely have a well developed network throughout Danish society, and extra contact teacher time can be helpful in contacts with authorities and apprenticeship places; this has been done with success at Aarhus Technical College. There is a special group of boys who are in dire need of understanding that there are rules to follow and demands that must be met, and that it is the school that sets the agenda; these students must be spread out to several classes so that they do not form cliques.

School as learning place, school as storage space

For the group of students with the most serious problems, the difference between school as storage space and school as learning space must be chiselled out in granite; the vocational education programme can be their very last chance. Typically, there are problems that demand cross-institutional collaboration; some students who are on the road right out of society are saved by round-the-clock School-Social Service-Police (SSP) collaboration based on the student's overall life situation. This demands resources that go far beyond the individual vocational college's competences and budgets.

It is difficult for individual vocational teachers and contact teachers to draw the line between being a vocational teacher and being a social worker. Vocational colleges are generally aware that the role of contact teacher makes great demands on personal resources. It is important that the VET system as a whole define its expectations of the role of contact teacher, and define how far the contact teacher role and responsibilities should extend. As a result of changed student profiles, some vocational colleges have fused the contact teacher role and education and careers counselling services into a single unit with full-time staff.

This page is included in the publication "Retention in Vocational Education in Denmark – A best practice study" as chapter 4 of 7
© The Ministry of Education 2004