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Workshop D
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Workshop A |
Workshop B |
Workshop C |
Workshop D
Workshop D - Session 2
I think each country in Europe has its own ways and traditions which can serve as inspiration for other countries. The educational system in Denmark is very complex. The first Danish Folk High School was founded more than 150 years ago. The Folk High School is a boarding school for adults emphasising the dialogue, social life and development of professional qualifications, of personal qualifications. There are no tests and there are no exams at all. The Folk High School comprises and develops from experience of the participants, whatever they have acquired in education, at the workplace or elsewhere. The motivating force should be curiosity and the joy of learning. This is the basic principle for the major part of the Danish non-formal education. Of course, as you all know, in educational policy money is an important issue, and Denmark education is considered as a right and as an objective in itself. Therefore all primary, continuing and higher education is 100% state-financed. All students above 18 years of age have a right to educational grants. One of the central aims in the educational policy is to make sure that all youngsters get a formal qualifying continuing education, and about 85% get it today. Of course the formal system is the backbone in any educational system, but also non-formal adult education is in focus. In adult education there is usually in Denmark a participant fee, even though half of the Danish adult population each year participate in state-subsidised adult education, and 20% of the Danish educational budget goes to non-formal education of adults and youngsters. In this brief presentation of the Danish educational system I will highlight 3 recently legislated initiatives: they are from 1995 and 1996 - Open Youth Education and Production Schools and Day Folk High Schools. Three Initiatives A common factor for all three of them are that they are based on private schools which are non-profit educational foundations, and their state subsidy depends on the number of participants. The money follows the participant, not the institution. If the school cannot attract participants, they have to close. On the other hand, if they are successful, they can be quite big. The school budget is in other words dictated by the demand. It is a bit like the idea in the Green Paper. Production Schools - the second one - are schools for young school drop-outs who need a second chance. Education and production are integrated on an individual basis, and the wares produced are sold on the market. The aim is to give the youngster the feeling of doing something useful, to give him or her self confidence, to give him or her personal and professional qualifications, so that they can be re-introduced in the ordinary educational system or into the labour market. More than 15,000 youngsters participated in 1996 in the Production Schools and there are more than 100 schools spread all over Denmark. The Open Youth Education is based on youngsters who for one reason or another cannot cope with the ordinary school system. Assisted by a counsellor, the youngster himself designs a two to three year long programme including goals and the content of the education. There have been 8000 participants since 1995 when the possibility came around, and there are about 350 places in Denmark that offer the Open Youth Education. Day Folk High School The last school I am going to mention is the Day Folk High School and that is for adults with short educational careers, unemployed or threatened by unemployment. The aim is to have a combination of basic skills, personal development and employability. There were about 37,000 participants in 1996 in the 225 Day Folk High Schools all over Denmark. Finally, I would like to emphasise some of the common factors for these three kinds of education. Firstly, there is a focus on the participant's learning, rather than the teaching. Secondly, the wishes and knowledge and experience of the participant are included in the education. And thirdly, there is no difference in the value of knowledge and learning acquired in education, the workplace or leisure. Lastly, the focus is not only on personal qualifications as a pre-condition for employability, but also on learning as a goal in itself. Q.: You say that there is no difference in the value of knowledge and learning, whether it be for the workplace or whether it be for leisure. But I wondered if there was a distinction in terms of the funding in Denmark, and whether there is a bias in funding towards vocational learning or whether in fact it is rather broader than that? Jakob Wandall: There is quite a difference between the funding of the different kinds of education. The funding is tied to the participant, but only when the participant approaches the institution, so you cannot take your money with you and spend it. The vocational system in Denmark is quite a large system and there is a very high degree of integration between the social partners and the production system and the educational institutions. Q.: I would like to ask about the legislative initiatives you mentioned, and you name three forms of schools or education. Could you also name the laws that support these initiatives? Jakob Wandall: There are separate legislative initiatives. There is one on Open Youth Education, one on Day Folks High School, and the same law for the Production School. They are all formalised as legislative initiatives.
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