Recurrent Education: Policy and Development in OECD Member Countries. Denmark.

Overview & Synopsis

The report on recurrent education in Denmark is one of a series describing continuation education in OECD member countries. Intended as a means of liberating individuals from the education-work-leisure-retirement sequence, recurrent education provides freedom to mix and alternate these phases of life within the limits of the socially possible. Chapter I provides background information on the Danish educational system and the problems caused by educational expansion after 1950, such as a widening educational gap between generations and a surplus of highly qualified manpower. Chapter II describes reforms and reform proposals at the secondary and higher education levels. I chapter III, existing elements of a recurrent education system are discussed: (1) leisure time education which can lead to qualifications for further study; (2) vocational education, including general education for workers, updating technological skills, occupational promotion education, and courses to facilitate inter-occupational mobility; and (3) further education of teachers. Chapter IV identifies inflexibility, tradition, and vested interests as major problems in financing recurrent education. Chapter V identifies key elements of a strategy for recurrent education as reapportionment of finances, public awareness, reform of upper-secondary education, creation of experimental programs, offering of courses at places of work, and establishment of loans with income-related repayment. (Author/DB)