Qualifications and goals. In 1995, the Dutch government introduced legislation called the WEB (Wet educatie en beroepsonderwijs), in which is laid down that vocational edu- cation will be organized as follows: intermediate vocational education pre- pares students for either subsequent education or for professional practice. Vocational education is provided by three types of institutions (1) ROC: a regional education centre, (2) AOC: an agrarian education centre and (3) vocational school (vakschool): vocational education on a smaller scale. In figure 1, Dutch vocational education is put into context and highlighted in blue. Secondary schools gives access to vocational education which in turn gives access to higher vocational education and the labour market. There are four levels of vocational education and the duration of a stu- dent’s course is dependent on the course’s level. Level 1 educates students to become assistant taking between half a year and a full year; Level 2 takes two to three years and provides basic vocational education; level 3 takes two to four years and provides middle vocational education and level 4 takes four years and gives access to higher vocational education (level 5) and an additional level 4 specialized training. The four levels in vocational educa- tion and their characteristics are depicted in figure 2. Furthermore, students from every level can choose one of two possible learning tracks in vocational education. Pupils who choose ’Beroepsbegeleidende Leerweg.’ (BBL) spend at least 60 per cent of their time as apprentices working for an employer. Those who choose the other option: Beroeps Opleidende Leerweg (BOL) spend relatively more time in the classroom (Nuffic, 2014). The WEB formulated that vocational education offers three types of qualifications. The first qualification focuses on vocational skills and the second on the possibility to promote to higher vocational education. The third focuses on citizenship: improving pupils’ skills to collect, assess and analyze information collected from social media, newspaper, tv etc. to en- able them to form a critical opinion of their own. The first qualification is clearly visible: after the introduction of the WEB, the influence of busi- nesses has increased. Students are more active in practice, businesses are more involved in schools by providing schools with guest lecturers from the professional field and both are combined in projects where students and businesses work together. The various institution...
