The vocational turn of adult education in Denmark – an analysis of adult education policy from the late 1990s

ABSTRACT

Denmark has a strong and versatile tradition of adult education. Over a long historical period, adult education for public enlightenment and leisure, for continuing study and for vocational and professional competence have been developed, been made part of state policy and been used by citizens. But in recent years the public and political presence of Danish adult education has changed. While education policy issues generally abound in public and political debates, adult education is given much less attention than earlier. In this article, we trace the causes of this and conclude that it reflects a turn towards focusing on vocational types of adult education and a relocation of adult education policy to networks linking the state and the social partners. Drawing on theories of policy streams, policy networks and the competition state, we provide a historical analysis of Danish adult education reforms during the past two decades and document how the vocational turn has manifested itself.

KEYWORDS:

• Adult education policy
• vocational education
• policy network
• competition state
• enlightenment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Programme for International Student Assessment.

2. In the case of the United Federation of Danish Workers (3F), it strengthened their existing strategy on adult literacy and was used as a window of opportunity to push for a strengthening of existing initiatives. However, except for 3F, the organisations do not seem to have used the first PIAAC results to advocate for their adult education agenda.

3. Some authors distinguish between traditional corporatism and the neo-corporatism of today. In this article, however, we do not make that distinction.

4. The problem stream consists of conditions defined as problems for instance by policy makers, the media or other participants; the policy stream consists of various ‘solutions’ or policies developed by specialists or policy entrepreneurs; and the politics stream consisting of developments involving the broader political conditions.

5. The Danish system of adult education consists of different but coordinated programmes and institutions. Funding is based on combinations of state grants, participation fees and employer contributions to the ‘competence funds’, and the level of fees is for the most part not prohibitive. There are strong links to both higher education and secondary vocational education. These factors together contribute to a high level of participation in adult education. The participation rate in 2016 was more than double the EU 2020 benchmark of 15 pct.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Palle Rasmussen

Palle Rasmussen is emeritus professor of education at the Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University and a member of the Centre for Education Policy and Evaluation Research in that department.. His research areas include education policy, lifelong learning and evaluation methodology and he has published extensively in these fields.  He is a former member of the Danish National Research Council for Communication and Culture.

Anne Larson

Anne Larson is associate professor in educational sociology at the Danish School of Education (DPU), Aarhus University. Her main research areas are education policy and lifelong learning. She is a member of the research programme in Policy Futures at DPU and co-convenor for the EERA-network on Policy Studies and politics of Education.

Pia Cort

Pia Cort is associate professor in vocational education and training at the Danish School of Education (DPU), Aarhus University. Her main research areas are education policy and the intricate interplay between research, policy and practice with a specific focus on vocational education and training and adult education. She is a member of the research programme in Policy Futures at DPU and is currently a member of an international expert team evaluating the Austrian Education Research Landscape.