95% målsætningen og uddannelsesvejledning

Abstrakt

In Denmark we have a national policy program with the political goal that 95% of all youth leaving compulsory school are to complete youth education, and so fare we have good results. 92% of the youngsters leaving school in 2011 are expected to complete youth education. But more young people nowadays choose the General Upper Secondary School, and less continues in vocational education. This is expected to be a problem for the labour market in very few years. And furthermore a group of young people have problems either starting or completing an education program. From 2010 a new act of guidance was established. As an element of this act it is a mandatory for young people between 15-17 to continue in education, employment or another kind of occupational activity after compulsory school. The act also contains an assessment of the educational readiness (both personal and academic requirements) of young people to ensure the transition from compulsory school to youth education. Currently there is political focus on getting young people to choose vocational education, and a new policy program announced this autumn states that in 2020 every fourth young person leaving compulsory school are to choose vocational education. But nobody wants to challenge young people’s free right to choose the education they want. This study analyses and discuses with the Actor Network Theory (ANT) how the many actors interact, relations change and how it influences the actors. The ANT is a theory of translation. Actors, human as nonhuman, are part of a network. When network circulate and meet other network, they relate to each other, and changes (translations) can happen. The theory analyses these translation in progress. In this way the theory provides tools for explaining the process by which society is constantly reconfigured. This study follows the different actors through their rhetoric in the legacy acts, in the newspapers etc. and interviews have been conducted with guidance counsellors, Heads of Guidance departments and a Senior Consultant from the Ministry of Education. The study concludes that network of actors in the educational policy area is very complex and the many actors are closely interdependent. The study also concludes that reaching the goal of 95% of all youth taking a Youth education is only possible by all actors working close with a joint effort.