Abstract
The economic recession in the 1980s constituted a reason to revise vocational education
in the Netherlands. There was a search for new forms of learning in context, with
authentic tasks in the real world, which had the explicit goal of bringing theory and
practice closer together. This combination of learning and working was said to better
prepare learners for the future and to guarantee effective training and a powerful learning
environment. Business and industry would acquire custom-designed people, ‘just in time,
just enough’.
This combination of learning and working is referred to by the term dualisering, (which is a
dual programme of work and study). It was assumed that integration of learning at the
workplace and working under an employment contract, with reflective learning moments
at school, would provide an effective learning environment for the development of
professional skills. Within higher professional education (HPE, in Dutch: HBO) many
forms and variants of learning while working and working while learning gradually
emerged. A distinction can be drawn, for example, between ‘apprenticeship’ and
‘internship’, in which the student either follows a dual track or undertakes a work
placement respectively. The work placement component seems to have increased in size
over the past few years to such an extent that it has become comparable with the dual
system.
Since the 1990s various initiatives have been undertaken in the Netherlands to promote
the dual programme of work and study through experiments within higher professional
education. Their design has varied from first-year full-time training followed by sixmonthly
periods of ‘school’ learning alternated with periods of working (CooP), to the
entire training programme of three days a week working and two days undertaking study
activities (Gilde-HBO). Currently, colleges of higher professional education are free to
design their own dual training programme. However, as part of a dual track, the
relationship between student, company and institute must be regulated by means of an
employment contract or training-employment contract. This means that dual students are
employees at the company, whereas non-dual students come into contact with the world
of work through work placements. Dual students were therefore believed to learn more
effectively what it takes to work in a specific profession. Furthermore, they would acquire
the more generic and specific skills necessary to perform a job and would be better
trained in profession-related skills, such as problem-oriented working and flexibility.
Original language | Dutch |
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Awarding Institution |
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Supervisors/Advisors |
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Award date | 13 Jul 2011 |
Place of Publication | Enschede |
Publisher | |
Print ISBNs | 978-94-6108-187-2 |
Publication status | Published - 13 Jul 2011 |