Robbert Dijkgraaf (D66), outgoing Minister of Education, urged final year students on Tuesday that a choice for vocational education “is actually a positive choice”. In a letter He advises vocational and pre-university students who will be attending their classes from Tuesday: “don’t be blinded by the so-called ‘level’ of the course.”
Dijkgraaf emphasizes that, given the shortages on the labor market, there is a lot of demand for MBO and HBO students. According to him, more mechanics, electricians and machine operators will be needed in the coming years. Partly due to the shortages, Dijkgraaf has been insisting on a higher appreciation for vocational education for some time. This appreciation should ultimately lead to more secondary school students opting for that type of education.
Dijkgraaf said on Tuesday that although he notices “increasing appreciation” for vocational education, he also still notices “inequality between students”. He calls this “unjustified” and therefore thinks it is “high time” to give vocational education and practically trained students “the recognition they deserve.”
Equal treatment
In order to encourage students to choose secondary vocational education, the Ministry of Education made it clear last year that it wants to treat them in the same way as higher vocational and university students. For example, last year the plan was presented to also introduce excellence programs in secondary vocational education, in order to ‘reward and highlight top performance. Honors are not reserved for university students.”
Financially speaking, MBO has already received a major boost: the cabinet decided last year to spend a total of 4.4 billion euros on MBO until 2027. That money was released to, among other things, combat internship discrimination, retain teachers and prevent school dropouts.