Directors divided over new high school education: "Stx will be for the elite"

If the government has its way, there will be major changes to the vocational high schools as we know them today.

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> It will create an A and B team, where one must belong to the elite to get into stx.

> Mads Skrubbeltrang, principal of Ørestad Gymnasium

The government is proposing, in fact, to dismantle hf and replace it with a new vocational and professional education called epx.

The new education will take three years and have lower character requirements than other vocational high school programs. However, the admission requirements will be tightened.

But the proposal has mixed reactions from several principals.

And if one asks Mads Skrubbeltrang, principal of Ørestad Gymnasium, it's a bad idea:

- It's drastic to create a completely new education, he says.

- It will create an A and B team, where one must belong to the elite to get into stx, and if one is more practically oriented, one will go to epx. I'm not interested in that division.

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The government's proposal

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The new vocational high school education epx will last three years and have lower character requirements than other vocational high school programs.

Young people will be able to take the education from 2030, where the government sets aside two billion kroner annually.

This corresponds to about ten percent of the current spending on vocational high school education.

As a starting point, the new education will only give access to short and medium-length further education, but Children and Education Minister Mattias Tesfaye (S) will create a selection package for those who want to go to university.

In the proposal, the government also plans to tighten the admission requirements for the other three-year vocational high schools.

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Other principals are enthusiastic

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But the tone is quite different at NEXT Education Copenhagen, where Ole Heinager is the managing director. The school offers both vocational high school, eux, and vocational education.

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> We shake things up completely and lay the bricks anew. It's needed, and it seems good to me.

> Ulf Givskov Bender, principal, Himmerlands Vocational and Gymnasium Education

- There are things in the proposal that delight me, he says.

If one asks Ole Heinager, the government is putting young people and their needs at the center with their new proposal.

Until now, only stx and hf have been able to offer young people a school environment with peers of the same age.

- Previously, students on vocational education programs had to meet their colleagues in the workplace at seven o'clock in the morning when they were only 17 years old.

Therefore, Ole Heinager believes that with the government's new proposal, young people will be able to offer a better transition to a professional and vocational education if an epx is created.

Because they would be able to meet in school with their own age group before going to a vocational education and be in practice as a carpenter or bricklayer.

And he is not alone in his opinion.

Ulf Givskov Bender is the principal of Himmerlands Vocational and Gymnasium Education, which offers both htx, hhx, and a range of vocational education programs. (Photo: © Mads Thøgersen, DR Nordjylland)

Also Ulf Givskov Bender is enthusiastic about the new proposal. He is the principal of Himmerlands Vocational and Gymnasium Education, which offers both htx, hhx, and a range of vocational education programs.

- I think it's great that some of the challenges with vocational high school education are being addressed now. We shake things up completely and lay the bricks anew. It's needed, and it seems good to me.

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> We are just really concerned that young people will be forced into the boxes that politicians think they should be in.

> Tomas Kepler, chairman of the Gymnasium Teachers' Association

And while some have been critical of forcing more young people into vocational education, Ulf Givskov Bender has the opposite view:

- I believe that it's crucial that we can handle the challenges and push young people a little more in the direction of the practically-oriented vocational and professional education programs, he says.

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