3. VET Reform 2000 - Why a new structure?

The Danish VET system is permanently undergoing changes. The new reform aims at achieving a number of central objectives. Since 1993 it has been the primary objective of Danish educational policy to give all young people a broad-based youth education after compulsory schooling. The reform seeks to support this objective by creating dynamic and attractive education programmes which are more transparent, flexible and open to the students' backgrounds and wishes.

A challenge for the education system has been the high dropout rates. This challenge has to a great extent been met: the dropout rate has been reduced by 50% in the 1990s. However, a certain price has had to be paid for such a positive result: young people clearly spend too much time in the youth education system due to many changes of mind and double education tendencies.

Another priority is to improve the responsiveness of the system to the new qualification needs of the labour market. The labour market requires skilled workers at the right level of competence and with the right sort of training. The focus of the late 1990s is to grant more freedom to the individual learner. The VET reform provides for a system that offers students of all different types specific, individualised training. Thus, the main objective of the reform is to strike a new balance between the two aspects: employability by providing higher general personal and vocational skills required by the business community and by establishing more flexible pathways to learning for the individual student.

Moreover, despite efforts undertaken by the Danish government, vocational education and training does not enjoy the same level of esteem as other systems of higher secondary education. Many pupils, and their parents in particular, still regard the general upper secondary education as a tried, tested and attractive educational option which they prefer once compulsory education has been completed at the age of 16. A specific focus in the reform is thus to combine the easy transition from education to work with the option to qualify for admission to higher education thus making the VET choice more attractive.

Today many young people have a critical attitude to school and education. They are more individualistic and are used to making rapid shifts and to having easy access to many sources of information. The ambition of the reform is to meet these requirements. To open up wider possibilities for the individual to compose his own education, the curriculum will have a modular structure in order to allow the student to plan his or her personal study routes through the programme. So the new VET reform is also a major step towards a pedagogical innovation with a view to changing the education system to support lifelong learning.

Denne side indgår i publikationen "New structure of the Danish Vocational Education and Training System" som kapitel 3 af 8
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