Craftsmanship under Neoliberal pressure ? The history of Danish vocational education and training

Since the reform of 1956 the Danish VET-system has been based on the principle of the so-called dual system. The dual model implies that education at the technical schools alternate with training at a workplace. The VET-system is therefore governed by two different interpretations of vocational professionalism and two different interpretations of how this professionalism is to be acquired. The aim of this article is to illustrate how this ambiguity has had implications on the historical development of the Danish VET-system from a craft based system controlled by the guilds to become an integrated element in an educational system dominated by neo-liberal ideology. The aim is to analyse the economical, political and cultural framework which the VET-system has been a part of. The historical introduction will functions as the basis for a discussion of the different roles of the technical schools and the training in the workplaces when it comes to the training of the skilled worker required by the labour market. This discussion will take its point of departure in the two traditions that have dominated the Danish research on the VET-system. Finally, the article will describe how the VET-students themselves look upon the professionalism promoted by the technical schools and the workplaces.