Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2018, published 108th ILC session (2019)

Human Resources Development Convention, 1975 (No. 142) - Denmark (Ratification: 1981)

Articles 1–5 of the Convention. Formulation and implementation of vocational education and training policies and programmes. Cooperation with the social partners. The Committee notes the series of measures undertaken by the Government to promote vocational education and training. The Government refers to the existing machinery for the development of comprehensive and coordinated policies and programmes of vocational guidance and vocational training. It reports that there are 52 municipal Danish Youth Guidance Centres providing guidance services for young people up to the age of 25 years focusing on the transition from compulsory to youth education, or to the labour market. There are also seven regional guidance centres tasked with the overall responsibility for providing guidance to youth and adults in relation to further education programmes under the “Choice of Study” programme. The Government also provides information on a range of initiatives related to vocational training and guidance implemented in the framework of the 2003 Act on guidance, as well as projects specifically targeted at young people with special needs. In this respect, the Committee notes the eGuidance platform, launched in January 2011. The Government indicates that, in 2017, it set new goals with regard to educational attainment, according to which at least 90 per cent of 25-year-olds will complete a general or vocational upper secondary education and the percentage of youths who are not in education or active in the labour market should be reduced by half by 2030. The Committee notes the implementation of a new Preparatory Basic Education and Training (FGU), which supports the achievement of these indicators. The Committee also notes the adoption of four acts in May 2018 which form the basis for the FGU programmes. The Committee takes note of the measures implemented by the Ministry of Education to interest young people in vocational training, inter alia, through the 2015–16 “Joint Guidance” project and the 2014–19 “Vision in Education” project. The Committee notes with interest the tripartite agreement on adult training and education concluded between the Government and the social partners in 2017, which is scheduled to run until 2021. The Government indicates that the agreement aims to strengthen activities in the sphere of publicly offered adult training and education programmes and to improve the quality of adult vocational training programmes, while ensuring more flexibility for employers in the public and private sectors to facilitate their improved access to qualified labour. It adds that the agreement creates a new framework for keeping workforce skills up to date with the pace of ongoing changes in the labour market and for ensuring that more workers – particularly low-skilled workers – participate in vocational training and education. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide updated information on the content and impact of measures to promote vocational guidance and vocational training, including the newly adopted legislation and programmes. The Committee also requests the Government to provide detailed information on the nature and content of the initiatives referred to by the Government targeting youth with special needs and to clarify which categories of young people are included in the category of “special needs”. It also requests the Government to continue to provide information on the manner in which the cooperation of the social partners is ensured in relation to the development, implementation and review of vocational education and training policies. In particular, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the implementation and impact of the tripartite agreement on adult training and education on improving the quality of publicly offered adult training and educational programmes and enhancing both the employability of the trainees as well as increasing employers’ access to better qualified job candidates.