The Danish approach to quality in VET

The focus of this publication is on quality, and on quality approaches in the Danish vocational education and training (VET¹) system. Systematic quality assurance with focus on objectives such as completion rates, employability, satisfaction among stakeholders, and societal value, etc., is a relatively new issue in education, and did not appear on the political agenda until the late 1980s. Quality is not an absolute concept, however; it is rather a complex concept, which depends on the stakeholders’ values, objectives, resources, policies and context. As such, quality in education and teaching is continuously defined through political debate and by the democratic process².

As to a national definition of quality, the Danish Ministry of Education has formulated it as follows in its description of the quality strategy for the VET sector:

“[…] it is not possible to say anything definitive and universal about quality in an education system. It is neither possible nor desirable to authorise one specific concept – be it in regard to methods or objectives and values. This is a basic democratic principle, which takes into consideration the fact that it is possible to achieve the same goals by different routes and with different means and methods” ³.

In the ministerial quality project initiated at the beginning of the 1990s, the basic idea behind the introduction of quality approaches at vocational colleges was formulated as follows:

“Quality concerns the processes and the results achieved by an educational institution. In order to establish the basis for “good quality”, it is necessary to define what is valuable to attain, i.e., what does the institution strive for. Only in this way is it possible to decide whether the institution is close to what has been formulated as “good quality” within an area. From such a point of departure, the crucial issue is to formulate objectives and consider methods to attain these objectives. That is why quality is all about deliberate change and development.” ⁴

In Denmark, quality in VET is perceived primarily in regard to providers and learners, with the aims of ensuring correspondence between the national VET objectives and the local VET programmes, and of securing the quality of the individual providers⁵.

For the Danish VET programmes, the objectives are that all young people should

• acquire a high professional level of competence;
• be able to continue in further or higher education after completion of a VET programme;
• develop their citizen skills in order to become active citizens in a democratic society.

Measuring the quality of VET programmes on these parameters is important, and the main indicators are employment, completion and further education/career pathways.

Main characteristics of the Danish VET system

The perception of quality and the approaches to quality in the Danish VET system reflect the values upon which it has been built, its structure, the role of the stakeholders, the prevailing governance principles, and of course, the overall historical and cultural context. When describing the Danish approach to quality in VET, it is important to emphasise three main characteristics of the VET system:

1. It is a decentralised system in which the VET providers have a great deal of autonomy in terms of adapting the VET they provide to local needs and demands. Quality assurance and development have been on the political agenda in Denmark since the beginning of the 1990s, when the Danish Ministry of Education changed course from central governance to targeting framework governance based on taximeter grants per student. The aim of the new guiding principles was to improve the overall responsiveness and effectiveness of the VET system. The VET providers should be relatively autonomous, enabling them to respond more rapidly to changes in the labour market stemming from technological, organisational and societal changes.
   
   
2. It is a system in which the social partners play an institutionalised role at all levels, from the national councils⁶ that advise the Danish Minister and the Danish Ministry of Education about VET, to the local training committees which advise the VET providers about the local education plans. This applies to both IVET and CVET⁷. This tripartite structure plays a significant role in all the quality aspects of VET:
   
   “The end users of the skills and competences produced by VET are centrally integrated in the formulation of standards, the running of production and the testing of performance⁸”.
   
   This means that procedures for quality assurance and development are integrated into the VET system.
   
   
3. It is a rather tight-knit system, due to the continuous dialogue between all the stakeholders at all different levels of the system, and to the short distance between those in positions of power, both culturally and geographically. Denmark is a small country, the stakeholders know each other and work together across the system, and there is widespread confidence and mutual trust among the various stakeholders. The stakeholders share the common overall objective, which is to ensure good VET programmes, for the benefit of the individual learners, the enterprises, the labour market and society as a whole. So despite a relatively vague definition of quality, a common quality criterion is, so to speak, also knit into the very fabric of the Danish VET system.

The VET context

This publication does not include a description of the Danish VET system, or the structure of IVET and CVET⁹. However, in regard to IVET and CVET, it is important to mention that:

• IVET programmes are based on the dual training principle, whereby the trainee enters into a contract with a company after the basic programme and alternates between schoolbased education/training and work-based training. The programmes are continuously renewed and developed, and since 1991, the system has undergone major reform.
  
  Today, the system is flexible and individualised. There are different entrances to the system, both through school and work, and the duration of a VET programme can be adapted according to individual needs and proficiency levels. Furthermore, the system offers both the opportunity of taking a partial qualification and for qualifying for further studies through a system of additional qualifications. The overall political aim is to make it an inclusive system. IVET plays an important role in the Danish education policies, as it is perceived as one of the main inclusion mechanisms for achieving the policy objective of making 95 per cent of a youth cohort complete a youth education programme.
  
  
• CVET is also offered through a public system which is highly flexible and modularised. In recent years, the focus has been on the development of skills closely related to the workplace and the job functions of the CVET participants. An extensive collaboration has been initiated between CVET providers and enterprises, and CVET courses are often provided as on-the-job training. CVET is primarily targeted at unskilled and skilled workers.
  
  
• There is currently political focus on increasing the interaction and coherence between IVET and CVET. The VET system as a whole is to become more transparent and more homogeneous in terms of regulations, providers and provision. One of the ways of making the system more coherent is to lay down objectives for the programmes in terms of competences to be acquired, in order to make the system more transparent, and to facilitate the transfer of credit between programmes. In 2007, all initial vocational training programmes came under the same national legislation as part of this policy objective.

Footnote

1) In this publication, VET encompasses both the initial VET programmes called EUD (Erhvervsuddannelserne), and the continuing VET programmes (CVET) targeted primarily at unskilled and skilled workers (Arbejdsmarkedsuddannelserne = AMU).
2) Focus on Quality, p. 3.
3) Quality strategy for the vocational college sector, 2nd edition, the Department for Vocational Colleges, Theme booklet 6-96, p. 7.
4) Q 90-projektet, the Danish Ministry of Education, 1999.
5) Be they vocational colleges, adult vocational training centres or enterprises.
6) The Advisory Council for Initial Vocational Education and Training (Rådet for de grundlæggende erhvervsrettede uddannelser – REU) and The Council for Vocational Adult Education and Training (Rådet for Erhvervsrettet Voksen- og Efteruddannelse – REVE).
7) IVET here encompasses the EUD programmes which are provided by technical, commercial and combined colleges. CVET encompasses the adult vocational training programmes which are provided by technical, commercial and combined colleges, and by adult vocational training centres. So the same providers may provide many different VET programmes.
8) Nielsen, Søren P.: Quality in Vocational Training in Denmark, SEL, 1995, p. 4.
9) For a description of the Danish VET system, please see: http://eng.uvm.dk/publications/ engonline.htm

This page is part of the electronic publication "The Danish Approach to Quality in Vocational Education and Training"
© The Ministry of Education 2008