The Danish - Undervisningsministeriet

A developing system
and technological; commercial and service; international and
cultural; and societal competencies. It was new, and difficult,
for the commercial colleges to plan competence-based training
activities. The reform was the first step towards the reform of
the technical training programmes which was implemented in
2000: more flexible access routes were introduced (please see
Reform 2000, page 43); interdisciplinary and holistic teaching
was further strengthened, including new elements, such as
SIMU enterprises, and the focus was on the individual trainee
and his or her learning processes.
Reform 2000
In 2000, a major reform of primarily the technical training
programmes was implemented. The background for the reform
was the fact that technical training did not attract enough
trainees, and that a considerable number of trainees dropped
out during the training. In order to make the programmes
more transparent, more flexible, and more attractive, the
structures were changed. Instead of choosing among 83
different VET qualifications from the start of their training,
the trainees could now choose between 7 different broad basic
courses which are highly flexible and individualised both in
terms of time and content (please see Flexible in time and
content, page 32). The reform implied major pedagogical
changes, putting the vocational teachers to the test in regard
to interdisciplinary teaching, team-working, differentiation
and coaching. The reform marked the paradigmatic shift from
teaching to learning and from focus on the class to focus on the
individual trainee. It introduced a number of new elements:
the contact teacher, the education plan, the log-book, the
possibilities for partial and additional qualifications, etc.
(please see page 37 and 39). The reform required quite a
cultural change at the colleges to handle the new flexible VET
programmes, and the broad basic courses have been criticized
for discouraging the students who expect the training to focus
on specific vocational skills right from the beginning of the
programmes.
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