Danish Vocational Schools received a Visit from the South

In November 2003 six vocational teachers from Uganda, Zimbabwe and El Salvador visited a number of Danish vocational schools on a study tour organized by Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke (MS). Here George Murime , a carpentry teacher from Zimbabwe, tells about his encounter with a very efficient Danish educational system.

By Søren Lindberg Jørgensen, MS - Translated by Claudia Juhl, MS-Zimbabwe

George Murime is a carpenter and vocational teacher at Nyamuroro Kubatana Training & Production Units in Gokwe, Zimbabwe. The vocational school started in 1992 offering special training for students who had finished secondary level but did not manage to get any jobs. The training centre offers education on building trade, metal and carpentry work.

At the end of November George participated in a study tour to Denmark, where he visited a number of vocational schools, one of them being Nordvest Jysk Uddannelsescenter in Thisted, together with five fellow teachers from Uganda and El Salvador. The visit made a great impression on George, who was particularly impressed by the Danish education system, especially the fact that everything is funded by the state.

“At Nyamuroro you have to calculate the selling features of the products all the time. We continuously receive orders from different firms and private people and as a rule we have to agree to this option of income even though it causes an interruption of the training plan,” says George and goes into details: “Sometimes we receive a big order, for instance there is someone who wants to build a house and get a roof on top, and so this is not included in the training plan, which means that we spend maybe three full months at the construction site, whilst we should have taught the students some theory.”

In this respect George views Nordvest Jysk Uddannelsescenter as a privileged school. The training plan is followed to the letter, because the financial resources are secured from outside. In Zimbabwe the situation is very different and tougher, the economy is tight, and resources from government are almost non-existent.

Discipline is the way forward

One thing, that really made George reflect on things, was his encounter with the discipline within the Danish vocational schooling system. At his school in Zimbabwe George often experiences that the students desert from training in order to help their parents with farming for instance. But this has rather devastating effects on the student’s future perspectives if he after three years of so-called training is more or less left without any professional ballast and discipline.

George explains: “So one thing I learned here – we have to keep the time schedule. It is an advantage to the student, if it is kept, because if he is to get a job, the employer will be interested in productivity, in earning money by employing him. If we spend three years spoiling him, he will not be able to get a job.”

The vocational school Nyamuroro has also had big problems in finding placements for the students at companies for practical training– the efficiency is simply too low. According to George another incentive to tighten up discipline is that the student will be motivated in a totally different way if he is participating in the course and slowly builds up the pleasure of mastering his craft.

Dedicated students

The way vocational schools recruit their students in Zimbabwe, was also brought in perspective during the visit in Denmark. First and foremost it is the parents who decide which educational direction the son or the daughter should take. At the same time it is difficult as a young person, green and inexperienced, to oppose the expectations of their parents. At Nyamuroro they traditionally arrange meetings to introduce the training courses.

“I try to tell a student about the advantages of being a carpenter. But inside he is not sure if this is the way he wants to go – so he comes, participates in the training; but after finalizing three years later he changes direction and instead he begins as shop assistant perhaps,” says George.

According to George the way of recruiting students at Danish vocational schools is really a good way to get hold of those who are dedicated to the trade. Here students participate in a basic course before the actual training, where you go through the process of receiving an order to the final delivery of the product – e.g. the construction of a house for instance. The students dip into the actual profession instead of only getting palmed off a lot of words, and in George’s opinion this is in fact “learning by doing”, that you find out in earnest if this is the way you want to go.

New technology – new ways of working

According to George not much nostalgic is lost by entering the modern machine world. And by looking at some of the machines which were scrapped in Denmark due to old age he is more than willing to take over: “That would be a great help for us,” as he says. Also the need of having simple PC’s for educational purposes is overwhelmingly present at the school in Zimbabwe. The vocational school in Zimbabwe has only one computer at its disposal and it is mainly seized by the administration.

George underlines the benefits of doing a study tour to Denmark, even though some of the things that are integrated in the Danish vocational schooling system are out of reach in a Zimbabwean context. In the long term though these things are bearing marks, like for instance the high level of individual freedom that Danish students have whilst working on a project , as well as the attitude of teachers who act more like a colleague rather than an authoritative figure.

“We would like to let the students run their own projects, but the resources are few. The main approach as we saw it here in Denmark is that there is a greater flexibility between the student and the teacher – the student manages his work himself. It is mainly his own design, and then it is the task of the teacher to propose minor improvements,” says George.

In other words he appreciates the idea of training, which is not ruled top-down but rather implies a form of cooperation between the student and the teacher. But then such an aim has to be balanced with the realities in Zimbabwe – the scope for this is not as great as George and his collegues might wish.

Mutual professional respect and further cooperation

It is not only George, who gained a lot through the exchange visit. The feed back from fellow colleagues in Denmark shows that there has been a qualified and exciting professional dialogue going on during the visit. Despite the fact that the working conditions cannot be said to be the same in the North and the South, the Danish teachers quickly realized that the colleagues in the South had exactly the same technical skills and enjoy their craft as they themselves do. The professional respect also brings along friendly relations, among other things the visitors were invited for dinner and events in the evening.

The boundaries got wiped out, and suddenly the distance between Gokwe in Zimbabwe and Thisted in Denmark was not that far – the talk about insurmountable cultural gaps grew dumb. It is exactly this kind of global consciousness which makes it seem all natural that “obsolete” Danish machinery and computer equipment should be of use in the South – relatively small efforts here can mean a whole lot there.

There has already been made plans for Danish vocational teachers to go on a study tour to the South. Experiences show that vocational schools in the South are strong especially within the area of reuse, adapted technology and reconditioning. So it would be natural to focus on a certain theme. Furthermore the idea was brought up that Danish vocational teachers should train vocational students during the exchange visit. Hopefully the study tour will be realized and one thing is certainly secured: George will do his best to ensure that they will benefit from the visit to the South as he himself did in Denmark.