When the Netherlands developed a national system of vocational education at the end of the 19th century, it was a direct answer to obvious shortcomings in the technical and trade professions (De Jonge, 1968). It concentrated on training craftsmen for the traditional, mainly agrarian economy, and technicians for the new, industrial economy. The training being offered was closely related to actual professional practices. In the first place, there was a very stable occupational structure, in which professional knowledge and skills did not become obsolete quickly. This, in turn, made it possible that education was -and remained - up-to-date. Secondly, almost all teachers were also experienced craftsmen, who only started teaching after a long career. The teachers learned actual professional practices through direct experience. In addition, students were also frequently familiar with actual practice, because the occupational structure was so stable: they knew exactly for which profession they were being trained. A stable occupational structure, a clear occupational orientation by the students, and teachers with extensive firsthand work experience ensured that vocational education was a powerful learning environment. For this reason, a dual system had hardly any added value. A consequence is that the apprenticeship system in the Netherlands - as opposed to almost all surrounding countries - had a lower status and fewer students than full-time education (Teerling & Bijveld, 1982).
The cultivation of intrinsic motivation is key in the 21th century, but most students in Dutch vocational education lack this quality. To foster intrinsic motivation, a strong career-learning environment is needed that enables students to develop career competencies and a career identity. However such an environment is absent in much of vocational education in The Netherlands. Research shows that the desired learning must be practice based (real life experiences are key), enable a dialogue (in order to attach personal meaning to real life experiences) and give students more autonomy in making choices in their school careers. Although there has been an increase in the use of portfolios and personal-development plans, these instruments are used mainly for improving success at school but are not in career and work. In addition research on the conversations between student and teachers/work-place mentors shows that the latter talk primarily to (65%), and about (21%), but rarely with (9%) students. The culture in schools is still predominately monological. Most teachers feel uncertain about their abilities to help students in developing career competencies and a career identity, though a growing number of teachers want to be trained in initiating meaningful career dialogues. In order to make such training successful in terms of promoting new guidance behaviours, it is essential that school managers create a strong career-learning environment for teachers. The Standards Era policies (Gatto, 2009) that dominate Dutch vocational education at the moment, however, leaves managers little space to do so. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50734-7_7 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reinekke-lengelle-phd-767a4322/
