Special Individual Education and Training Offers at Secondary Education - Denmark

Source: Ministry of Education

• Education and Training for All
• Vocational Basic Training
• The Production Schools
• Special Education and Training Offers for Young Unemployed Under 25 Years of Age

In 1993, the Minister of Education launched an action programme for youth education: "Education and Training for All" with the aim of ensuring that all young people in a year group complete a youth education programme. The background was the huge drop-out which meant that 25% of a year group did not complete a youth education programme, and a third of the year group did not get any vocationally qualifying education.

To cut a long story short, it is the aim of the action programme to ensure that all (or almost all) young people not only commence but also complete a youth education programme. The plan contains 10 initiatives which in particular concentrate on a strengthening of the guidance effort vis-à-vis the most disadvantaged group of young people and on the creation of alternative courses of education which are to get hold of the young people, before they drop out.

The following initiatives can be mentioned in this context:

• Bridge-building courses into youth education are offers to all young people under 19 years of age who have completed the 9th form of the Folkeskole but who are in doubt about their choice of youth education. Bridge-building courses are courses combining guidance and teaching, where young people are given the opportunity to try out some educational possibilities in practice, before they are to make their choice. A bridge-building course may be of up to one year's duration.
• Independently organised youth education (the so-called "open youth education") is a 2-year general youth education programme, where the individual pupil composes his or her own content according to interest and need. The programme must consist of at least 3 parts, of which a minimum of 40 weeks must be spent at a school. The education parts may be parts of known programmes, periods spent at a folk high school, associative work, project work, visits abroad etc. A certificate is issued on completion of the programme.

The programme is intended as an alternative for those young people who either are not able to or do not want to complete a traditional youth education programme.

There are no examinations or tests in the programme, and it is not from the outset designed to provide any specific competence; it provides the competence contained in each individual part of the programme.

Vocational Basic Training

Vocational basic training is another alternative to the traditional youth education programmes. Through a combination of theoretical education and practical work, it is the aim of these courses to motivate less academically oriented young people to get started with a course of education or to improve their possibilities of entering the labour market. The course is of 2 years' duration, and an individual training plan is drawn up which is followed up by the guidance system.

The Production Schools

The production schools offer a motivating vocational preparation course and are directed at young people under 25 years of age who have not completed a youth education programme. The course consists of practical work and production complete with theoretical education. In addition to the practical instruction, the participants are offered intensive educational and vocational guidance. It is the aim to strengthen the personal development of the participants and to improve their possibilities in the education system as well as in the labour market.

There is free intake to the production schools and no limitation with regard to the duration of the course. Most production schools are self-governing institutions which receive public funding.

Special Education and Training Offers for Young Unemployed Under 25 Years of Age

From 1996, all young people are both entitled and obliged to commence a course of education after a maximum unemployment period of 6 months. The choice of education is agreed with the public employment service or the municipality. The target group consists of two groups of young unemployed under 25 years of age without a vocationally qualifying education, i.e. on the one hand young people eligible for unemployment benefits who have been unemployed for at least 6 months within a 9-month period and on the other hand young unemployed receiving social assistance. The young person may choose between

• ordinary education and training programmes,
• specially organised 18-month courses of education offered at vocational colleges and labour market training centres (AMU-centres) which qualify for further education or occupational employment. If the young person chooses one of the specially organised courses of education, it must be approved by the public employment service and laid down in a training plan, or
• courses at for instance production schools, non-residential folk high schools, folk high schools etc. In this case, the public employment service is to approve the young person's participation on the basis of an evaluation of whether there will be a need in the labour market for such a course.

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