Vocational education is suffering. The number of young people who choose these programs after primary school has only increased slightly, new figures show.
Overall, 64,300 young people applied for youth education this year. But only 12,800 of the students, who come from the primary school's 9th and 10th grade, have chosen to apply for vocational training.
This is shown by figures from the Ministry of Early Childhood and Education.
Overall, the new vocational school students correspond to 19.9 percent of the 64,300 young people who have applied for youth education this year. Only 0.5 percentage points more than last year.
And the new figures are worrying reading for the business organization SMVdanmark.
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– Despite the small increase, it is worrying that vocational training is not more popular among young people.
– It should give rise to reflection and action from the political side. We are in a situation where we will need more people with practical skills in the coming years, says Kasper Munk Rasmussen, who is responsible for training at SMEDanmark.
Back in January 2023, Minister for Children and Education Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil (S) had to scrap the government's goal that 30 percent of all Danish youth should choose a vocational education.
In the press release , the minister does not refer directly to the enrollment figures from his own ministry either.
– It is a big decision when, as a 15-16-year-old, you have to choose a youth education. I think that today we are asking some young people to make a choice that they are not prepared to make at that time in their lives, says Tesfaye.
But there is a strong need for young people on vocational training. In a survey conducted by Autobranchen Danmark last year, 81 percent of the workshops surveyed answered that they have difficulty getting enough people.
Still, the survey among the mechanics indicates that half of them have or have wanted to quit. Read more about it here .
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