The Danish government agreed to allocate EUR 13.44 million (DKR 100 million) for climate adaptation and the green transition for 2022. The funds are being disbursed to include the green transition in education and training, while mapping future skills and competence needs.

The government decided to provide funds for the green transition in 2022 and agreed to include ‘increased sustainability and green transition’ in the purpose clause for vocational education at the earliest legislative opportunity.

New initiatives build on the experience of 2021

In 2021, the Danish government had already allocated EUR 13.44 million for upskilling and continuing education in climate adaptation and the green transition, and EUR 7.25 million for nine knowledge centres to work in this field. The knowledge centres prepared and tested new short teaching courses and materials focusing on sustainability and the green transition, aiming at their broader use in vocational education. In addition, the knowledge centres assisted in providing teacher training to increase their competences in the field in sustainability and green transition.

The new 2022 initiatives build on the experiences from 2021 around four focus areas:

  • specifying green conversion as a purpose in the Vocational Education Act;
  • development and anchoring of knowledge about, and competences for, use in the green transition;
  • local initiatives within the green transition;
  • mapping needs and challenges.

Green transition funds secured until 2025

The political parties agreed to make funds of EUR 13.44 million available for climate adaption and green transition for the year 2022. Moreover, they agreed that this amount of money will be made available each year until 2025 to guarantee a long-term policy.

The funds include a special grant of EUR 4.83 million to providers of technical vocational education for activities and initiatives related to the green transition, sustainability, etc. The special grant must support green upskilling measures which are offered to both unemployed and employed people.

Finally, the funds include the allocation of a total of EUR 1.344 million to five selected professional committees to map future competence needs related to the green transition, its challenges and proposals for potential solutions. The political parties also agreed that in 2022 the funds will be disbursed through an application pool.

Vocational education at the heart of the green transition

‘The green transition is a prerequisite for fulfilling Denmark's very high climate ambitions, and here many of our vocational education policies are central. I am therefore pleased that we have made an agreement to help support the work of the institutions, and which emphasises the importance of vocational education's contribution to the green transition’, said the education minister.

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Agreement on implementation of a pool for green continuing education and retraining

Please cite this news item as: ReferNet Denmark; Cedefop (2021). Denmark: green transition in vocational education.  National news on VET