Danish VET-students General Assembly: “A weekend you will not forget”

During the weekend of 26-28th of October, the Danish VET students (EEO – Erhvervsskolernes Elev-organisation) met at the Strib School for their annual General Assembly. With exciting discussions, workshops, a new plan of action and a new presidency, yet another active year in EEO was set. Here is an update from the newly elected chairman – Morten Ryom – and vice chairman – Johan Sundwall.

Currently there are, among other things, discussions in the Danish parliament concerning how the education and training of VET students is to be arranged in the future. There is a long tradition of workplaces participating in organising apprenticeships, and currently 11.000 VET-students need to find an apprenticeship. EEO is concerned that the government is not doing enough to secure quality apprenticeships for VET students. The weekend was filled with enthusiasm, ideas and opportunities to meet new people from all over the country. This shows that the future of EEO is bright. The VET-students present, chose to prioritize discussions and solutions for an equal and fair pay for the students who are in school. The participants made it clear that we will not accept “education guarantees” without content but instead create internships for all! In EEO we are worried about the consequences of the proposals from the governments’ training committee, including concerns about students’ economic security and opportunity to finish their dream education. The proposals indicate, among other things, the creation of social clauses, meaning that the state only conclude agreements with companies that take apprentices. Another topic discussed was the social life in the technical schools and safety regulations, and VET-students chose to continue focusing on for these topics in the next year. By working together with the many talented Principals and teachers at the schools, we hope to find common solutions that can make our education programs even better. Internally, in the organization we also decided upon a series of new initiatives. In the upcoming year we will explore possibilities to organize those who are enrolled in a higher education program as a superstructure on their VET.

The many active VET-students can also enjoy the purchase of new EEO jackets, to light-up the winter darkness, as this was prioritized in the budget.  Saturday evening featured all the entertainment and celebration that you can imagine. This was an opportunity to get to know each other and relax after many days hard but interesting discussions. Over the weekend we also got several guest speakers: among these was Tiia from the European platform for School Student Unions, OBESSU, who stressed the need for an international focus on Vocational Education and interesting initiatives arising from the European level. It provided an opportunity for increased cooperation across borders on such issues as apprenticeships in foreign countries.

We are looking forward to seeing a lot of new VET-students at our next national meeting in March. EEO’s national congress is held from 15-17^th March 2013. At the congress we meet to become better student representatives at our schools, participate in exciting workshops, meet new and old friends from all over the country and especially discuss and adopt statements, which form the basis of what EEO means and says to the public. This forms the basis on influencing our educational programs on a national level. Thanks for a great weekend: we are looking forward to seeing you at the next EEO event!

See more pictures from our congress at EEO’s Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/eeo.dk/photos_stream