by guest blogger Katie Fitzgerald
The Netherlands ranks in the top 10 of the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) rankings, but its education system still faces challenges. This interview with Martin van Os, Education Advisor in the Netherlands, explores the pressing issue of CTE or VET (Career Technical Education or Vocational Education and training). This interview was conducted by Katie Fitzgerald of NASDCTEc as part of our ongoing partnership with Learning that Works! Blog (National Association of State Directors of the CTE Consortium).
What does ETC/VET look like in the Netherlands?
In some context, the Netherlands has one of the densest populations in the world, our economy is ranked eighth and our PISA scores are in the top ten, with national targets to place us in the top five. According to UNICEF, our children are the happiest in the world.
Recently, a consensus was reached on the nine “Top Sectors”, or the categories in which we excel and want to maintain our excellence. Among them are: water management, food technology, energy, creative industry, high technology, and life and health. To continue to excel in these areas, the Netherlands will need 30,000 people each year with the right educational skills to accommodate job replacement and industry growth.
Currently, the education system is categorized by “tracks” where students are labeled as low achievers, intermediate or high achievers. The big challenge is that not enough students choose a technical field of study in post-secondary education. Research shows that the perception among students is that technical courses are difficult and that a career in a technical field is boring.
After primary education, a student can participate in secondary education in seven different streams, although many secondary schools combine them. Yet these many options for 12-year-olds are a unique feature of our system.
Regardless of categorizing a student as belonging to a certain stream, our system aims to provide students with the education that meets their needs, which has resulted in a very low dropout rate. Despite this, we have little upward mobility in the school system at a time when we need everyone to reach their full potential. Moreover, the secondary CTE is generally taken by students with lower academic results, while the academic track is taken by students who perform at a higher level. This led to a very negative perception and made it difficult to promote the ETC.
Another cause of this negative perception is the improvement of primary education and the ambition and pressure of parents, which translates into a decrease in the number of students enrolled in CTE streams and more in academic streams. In addition, academic pathways place little emphasis on professional technical education. While the traditional routes through secondary schools for vocational education are declining in participation, we had hoped that the CTE in the academic route would grow. Since that didn’t happen, it left us with a lack of skills and a sense of urgency.
Please describe the current landscape of vocational technical education/VET in the Netherlands.
Overall, there has been a drop in attendance at CTEs and in particular a sharp drop in the traditional technician and craftsman sectors. However, there is growing interest in newer courses, which combine technical education with entrepreneurial skills.
The two trends combined mean that CTE enrollment in higher grades has remained relatively constant over time. Just over a third of third-year high school students engage in CTE, out of approximately 200,000 students in total.
Another opportunity is that more of our students are eligible for technical or scientific programs in higher education, especially in higher education, even if they do not choose CTE programs at the moment. In fact, the economic crisis has been a big boost for students who actually choose technical and scientific careers. All this to say that it is possible that more students will choose CTE at the secondary and post-secondary levels.
Every system has its challenges, what are yours? What solutions are you looking to implement?
Our first challenge is to change the perception of ETC in the country. We need to expand ETC across all schools for all students of all levels. We need to remove the stigma that only students with low ability should participate in CTE in our school culture, and instead make CTE accessible to all students at all levels, especially in the middle streams where there is a wide potential of talents and young people who want more attractive curricula and CTEs.
In addition to making CTE accessible to all students, we need to convince students and parents that there are attractive careers in CTE fields. While it is admirable to increase the number of CTE students, we need to convince students to pursue CTE careers.
In addition to changing the perception of CTE, we need to nurture successful school initiatives and support them with smarter legislation, governance and funding systems.
There is also a need to establish clearer links between education systems. The three stages of a student’s education are primary, secondary, and tertiary education, all of which have their own systems and rewards. Essential skills for students to succeed in the next stage of education are not sufficiently included in the reward system.
Check back on Monday to read some of the potential solutions and unique programs being implemented to improve ETC in the Netherlands.
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Martin Van Os started his career as a physics teacher, became a school principal, coordinated national continuing education courses for science and technology, was the chief organizational adviser of the National Center for the Improvement of urban schools, worked for the government on vocational secondary education and was founding director of the support society Vakcollege.
Image credit: NASDCTec
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