Educational and Vocational Guidance in Denmark

1. Structure of Educational and Vocational Guidance1.1 A brief historical outlineEducational and vocational guidance in Denmarkdates back to 1917 when the Copenhagen CentralPlacement Office established a Unit for Trainee Placementand Vocational Guidance. In 1935, the CareersIndex was established and following this, in 1946, apilot scheme of vocational guidance counsellingbegan at eight public placement offices. In the middleof the following decade, the Act on Vocational Guidancewas decided upon by the Danish Parliament,and all public placement offices then employed vocationalguidance counsellors. From 1963 through 1978,the majority of educational institutions recognised andintroduced educational and vocational guidance.Finally, in 1981, the Act on Educational and VocationalGuidance was introduced, and in consequence of thisact the Danish National Council for Educational andVocational Guidance (Rådet for Uddannelses- ogErhvervsvejledning, R.U.E.) was established. A specificyouth guidance scheme was introduced by law in1982, and during the 1990’s several other new guidanceservices were established. Also during the 1990’sthe Careers Index was substituted by the DanishEducational and Vocational Encyclopaedia. In 1996,the Act on Educational and Vocational Guidance wasrevised and the tasks of R.U.E. consequently expanded.1.2 Organisation and monitoringAccording to the Act on Educational and VocationalGuidance, guidance services are to be offered by publicemployment services, schools/educational institutions,and by other relevant authorities and agencies.Currently, 27 different types of guidance services existall of which have individual codes of practice. A guidanceservice is defined as an educational and vocationalguidance service which is offered to a specifiedtarget group. For information about the 27 guidanceservices, see chapter four.The structure and scope of a guidance service varybecause a great deal of responsibility is decentralisedto both regional and local bodies. In a number ofcases, decisions on the range of guidance activitiesoffered can be made by the individual guidance serviceinstitution. Therefore, individual institutions andtheir respective heads of service can influence actualservice provision within a particular type of guidanceservice.Denmark is divided into 14 counties and 275 municipalities,and political and administrative structures aregenerally decentralised. The state is responsible foruniversity-based guidance, centres of information ofhigher education (centre for information om videregåendeuddannelser, ivu*C), vocational training centresand the public employment services (these includeinformation centres and vocational guidance services).The 14 Danish counties run the guidance servicesconnected with adult education and the folk highschools and the municipalities run the youth guidanceservices, the primary and lower secondary schoolguidance services, and the integration services forimmigrants. A great many people are actively involvedin educational and vocational guidance activities inDenmark; across the 27 guidance services inDenmark, approximately 12,000 guidance counsellorsare employed. It should be noted, however, that themajority work part-time as guidance counsellors, oftencombining both teaching and guidance-related tasks7