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The number of students having successfully finished their VET course has risen to almost 84%, concluded the Inspectorate of Education in its 2019 report on the State of Education in the Netherlands. What more can be done to reduce the share of drop-outs even further, now since more than a decade a great number of policy instruments has already been applied?
A recent study concluded that the legal position of students should be set in law; on 27 February 2019, in a Letter to Parliament the Minister for education accepted this conclusion.
Teacher teams promote research as a method of evidence-informed innovation of education practices.
The Dutch Cabinet, in cooperation with social partners, sectoral training and development funds, educational institutions including VET schools, and other stakeholders, has proposed significant developments in lifelong learning. On 27 September 2018, Parliament was informed about the main lines of this approach in a policy letter.
Cedefop organised the second policy learning forum on apprenticeships, a European vocational skills week event, on 18 and 19 October in Thessaloniki.
In a recent letter to parliament, Minister for Education, Culture and Science Ingrid van Engelshoven shared her political vision of internationalisation of senior secondary VET and higher education. She advocated that internationalisation should become an objective of each vocational education and training (VET) programme and institution. Since 2017, one of the aims of the Confidence in the future coalition agreement has been to stimulate international mobility.
In a move to strengthen the relationship between schools and the labour market, Dutch senior secondary VET schools can apply to join the Making room for the region initiative, which aims to develop qualifications in cooperation with region-based enterprises. Although qualifications are created at national level, this initiative allows VET schools to define learning outcomes in cooperation with regional partners, and to design education programmes responsive to regional developments. The proposal, from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture initiative, was agreed in the Cabinet meeting on 9 May 2018.
Is Dutch senior secondary vocational education (middelbaar beroepsonderwijs - mbo) able to respond to rapid labour market changes? And are VET students well-equipped for a good start and lifelong sustainable employability? The report A calling for vocational training (Beroep op het mbo) published in autumn 2017 by the Institute for Social Research (SCP), presents the views of teachers, managers, intermediaries and learners on the responsiveness and flexibility of mbo.
An increase in inequality between pupils' educational opportunities was registered in The State of Education 2015/2016 annual report, published in April 2017 by the Dutch Inspectorate of Education.
The Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) has published a report on VET, which emphasises the importance of intensifying cooperation between schools and enterprises. The aim is to be responsive to, and able to keep up with, the pace of innovation.