The urgent need for digitalisation in education and the transition to remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic lead to further individualisation of learning processes, often with negative consequences for students' learning and wellbeing. On 1 June 2021, political stakeholders agreed on additional funds and measures to address these educational challenges.

Several studies about VET in Denmark show that, although some students with strong study competences have benefited from a more flexible and individualised framework, most students’ learning and wellbeing has been negatively affected through the COVID-19 crisis (National Centre for Vocational Education 2020 and the e-Knowledge Centre 2020).

‘The school closures, the operation of education in an emergency mode for many months and the physical isolation have left their mark. I am glad that we have invested more funds and provided extra flexibility, so that a framework is in place that can be adopted by schools individually’ says Minister for Children and Education Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil.

Agreement on additional funds and measures

Against this background, political stakeholders have agreed to invest EUR 40 million to help overcome challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in primary and lower secondary education. In addition, EUR 22 million were allocated exclusively to VET students, where major difficulties were encountered concerning the provision of virtual classes for practical subjects.

Along with the additional funds, the stakeholders also agreed on the need for more freedom, granting schools, education institutions and municipalities the authority to deal with their individual educational challenges in primary, secondary and adult education.

In the field of vocational education, the agreement includes several measures, most importantly:

  • approval of a temporary suspension of the rule limiting the number of attempts at admission to the second part of the basic course for students who have used their third attempt at education in the first half of 2021;
  • authorisation of up to one week of supplementary teaching in the main courses of vocational education and grant extensions of up to eight weeks in podiatry education;
  • grants for the student organisations in youth education.

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Please cite this news item as: ReferNet Denmark; Cedefop (2021). Denmark: measures to ensure VET students’ learning success during the COVID-19 pandemic.  National news on VET