Page 6 - the_danish_education_system

THE DANISH EDUCATION SYSTEM

General and vocational

upper secondary education

In Denmark, upper secondary education program- regard to the hf programme, students choose sub-
mes, also referred to as youth education program- jects from the electives offered by the school.
mes, can be divided into:
The curriculum and examinations must follow
– General upper secondary education pro- national standards and are subject to external
grammes, which primarily prepare students evaluation. The curricula of the hhx and the htx
for higher education. differ from those of the stx and the hf. In addition
– Vocational upper secondary education and to some general upper secondary subjects, hhx
training programmes, which primarily pre- offers financial and business subjects, and the htx
pare students for a career in a specific trade offers technical subjects.
or industry.
The stx and hf programmes are offered primarily
by general upper secondary schools. This sort of
General upper secondary school is called Gymnasium. Business and tech-
education programmes nical colleges offer the hhx and htx programmes,
respectively. Some schools are mixed schools of-
fering various types of programmes.
There are four academically oriented general up-
per secondary programmes: Admission requirements for the stx, hhx and htx
are a Folkeskole Leaving Certificate as well as
– The 3-year Upper Secondary School certain subject requirements. For the hf, admis-
Leaving Examination, Gymnasium (stx) sion requirements are 10 years of basic school or
– The 3-year Higher Commercial the equivalent thereof. The stx, hhx and htx are
Examination (hhx) for students aged 16-19, whereas the hf attracts
– The 3-year Higher Technical both young people and adults. The hf programme
Examination (htx) can be taken on a single-subject basis and is also
– The 2-year Higher Preparatory taught in evening classes.
Examination (hf)
The programmes will be subject to changes in the
All four programmes prepare students for further coming years, following a political agreement in
studies while also developing the students’ perso- June 2016 between the Government and a majo-
nal and general competencies. The programmes rity in the Danish Parliament.
aim to enhance the students’ independent and
analytical skills as well as preparing them to be-
come democratic and socially conscious citizens Vocational education
with a global outlook.
and training (VET)
Each education programme has its specific range
of compulsory subjects that are common for all Vocational education and training (VET) includes
students attending the programme. For the stx, more than 100 main programmes leading to al-
hhx and htx programmes, each school also offers a most 300 different qualifications at level 3 to 5 in
number of different specialised study programmes the Danish qualification framework. The duration
(packages normally containing three subjects) and varies from 2 to 5½ years, the most typical being
elective subjects for students to choose from. With 3½ to 4 years. VET programmes are combination

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