Teenagers, and mainly those with poor grades from primary school, will in the future be able to attend a new form of education: vocational school.
The government wants a proposal for a suitable arrangement by autumn 2024.
About 15 percent of all students who leave primary school do not have enough passing grades to be eligible for a “regular”, national upper secondary school program. That group should have the opportunity to attend a new type of vocational school instead, the government believes.
– It will be adapted to the young people, but also to the industries’ needs for well-educated labour. The vocational school will have a very practical focus, said Education Minister Lotta Edholm at a press conference on Thursday.
The idea is also that the future employers in various industries should have a great influence over the structure of the educations.
Students who do not meet the eligibility requirements for a national program are currently referred to an introductory program, with the goal of eventually moving to a national program. So now the government wants these young people to be able to go straight into the vocational school instead, and be fully trained after, say, a couple of years. The length of the training will be one of the questions that an investigation that has already begun must now tackle.
The investigation will also review whether the vocational school’s students must take a vocational exam to demonstrate their competence, and whether the vocational school should be part of the upper secondary school or a separate form of school.
The vocational school must prioritize students who are ineligible for upper secondary school, but also eligible students must be able to apply to the vocational school.
The government has also recently decided to investigate a new form of vocational training at upper secondary level for adults.