Marketing in Denmark

At any given time, a number of initiatives and campaigns are being initiated or are underway to promote the attractiveness of VET. The campaigns are initiated by both the Ministry of Children and Education and the social partners.

Over time, VET campaigns have served different purposes. Since 2014 a selection of different initiatives has been launched.

• The Ministry of Children and Education launched a campaign, “Opportunities in reality”, the aim of which was to promote the attractiveness of VET programmes (2014) in order to encourage more young people to choose a VET pathway. This campaign was closely linked to the Danish government’s plan for growth (Vækstplan.dk). One of its targets was to create a thousand new apprenticeships per year, and more widely it aimed to strengthen the dual system and increase the number of young people completing VET.
• The match between the supply and demand of apprenticeship places is another central challenge in a market-driven system such as the Danish VET system. In a context with a growing concern that Denmark will not have sufficient skilled workers in the years to come, the Confederation of Danish Industry (Dansk Industri, DI) launched a new initiative in 2015. Forty staff members from the confederation entered into direct contact with membership companies, encouraging them to engage more apprentices.
• The manufacturing sector has seen a revival in the Danish economy. As part of that effort, the Confederation of Danish Industries and the Danish Industry Foundation are financing a large-scale project, “Center of Excellence” at four large VET colleges to ensure highly skilled students enter VET colleges.
• Similarly, DI (Danish Industri), 3F, HK, Dansk Metal and Teknisk Landsforbund have launched the campaign “Hands-on – there is a future in industry” (2015) to promote manufacturing as an attractive career destination for a range of occupations.
• The participation of Danish VET students in World Skills has become a prominent mean of promoting VET among young people through the yearly competition. “DK Skills”, which took place in January 2015, had 68,000 visitors, and there were competitions in 36 different VET skills areas.
• The campaign “New Apprenticeship” was launched in August 2016 with a focus on the more practical tracks in VET. The campaign is run in close cooperation between the Ministry of Children and Education and SME-Denmark and aims to raise awareness about the possibilities of New Apprenticeship.
• In November 2017 a new campaign was launched to increase the awareness of EUX – the combined upper secondary and VET programme. The campaign focuses on both students and parents.