More people are considering switching careers to become teachers, according to a study carried out by an educational foundation. Around 40 per cent of working people interviewed said they were interested in teaching, though many said they did not want to teach full-time or for the rest of their careers.

The study was carried out by research agency Motivaction on behalf of Stichting Platform Bèta Techniek (PBT), an organisation set up to address the shortage of skilled teachers in science subjects such as chemistry and biology. Secondary schools are also struggling to recruit teachers for foreign languages, NOS reported.

Potential teachers said they valued the chance to help children and young people get the most out of their abilities. However, many were put off by the lack of opportunities the profession offered for personal development.

A spokesman for PBT said teachers needed to be challenged more throughout their careers and not expected to teach the same material year after year. ‘If we don’t want people to drop out of education after a while, something needs to be done. We need to have an overhaul of how we think about education; it has to become much more flexible.’
 

Der Arbeitsmarkt ist in Südthüringen fast leer, doch gerade kleine Betriebe buhlen erfolgreich um neue Mitarbeiter und setzen sich sogar gegen Konzerne durch. Ihre Methoden sind ausgefeilt.

On January 25, the Danish ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs officially announced the Danish Technology Pact in a press release. The government has set various ambitous targets for different levels of STEM education, and will closely cooperate with the education institutions and industry partners for its implementation. The Pact wil be officially launched in spring. More information can be found in the press release (Danish only).

The developments are closely followed by the Danish regions. In the Central Denmark Region (Midtjylland) the draft-regional Technology Pact was finalised during a final meeting on January 10 before being submitted for political approval. 

On January 18, 2018 the Norwegian National Centre for Science Recruitment organised a first stakeholder consultation to explore a possible Norwegian Technology Pact based on existing STEM strategies in Denmark, the Netherlands and Estonia. The meeting featured a presentation of the upcoming Danish Technology Pact by the Danish STEM platform ASTRA.

The 'ensuring a nynamic skills-training and life-long learning system' chapter of the OECD's 2017 Economic Survey of Switzerland concluded that Switzerland makes more use of its human resources than most other OECD countries. Labour force participation is high and the unemployment rate low for most segments of society. This ensures a high standard of living for most Swiss people. Nevertheless, productivity growth is relatively slow. While this may in part be attributable to already being an advanced economy, it also means that Switzerland cannot be complacent with regard to education and skills. Its admirably low youth joblessness suggests that the transition from education to work is functioning soundly. However, there is mounting evidence that as the structure of industry is changing, due to globalisation and digitalisation for instance, vacancies and skills mismatches are spreading. The mix of skills being taught differs from those taught in most other high-income OECD countries in which a common secondary school track predominates and the emphasis is on equipping young adults with academic tertiary qualifications. In this context, it is important that the system is flexible enough to respond to shifts in the demand for skills and that workers continue to learn. While the participation of women and immigrants in the economy compares relatively well, more can still be done to improve equity in the accumulation of skills. 

This review is one of a series of country reports on postsecondary vocational education and training (VET) in OECD countries, prepared as part of an OECD study (see Box 1.1). The series includes reviews, (such as this one) involving an in-depth analysis of a country system leading to a set of policy recommendations backed by analysis. In addition there are commentaries. These simpler exercises are largely descriptive but also including an assessment of strengths and challenges in the country system. The commentaries are designed to be of value as free-standing reports, but are also prepared so that they can become the first phase of a full review, should a country so wish.