English to Greek Other Other tourism sector,mentoring, management

2. Denmark – Coop Food School

Title Coop Food School
Country Denmark
Economic Sectors Hospitality
Theme Butchers, bakers and delicatessen assistants
Educational field and level Vocational education and training (ISCED 3 and 4)
Target groups • Coop Company
• VET training centers in hospitality

The Danish retail chain Coop has developed its own VET programme at IVET level for butchers, bakers and delicatessen assistants. The programme follows the national requirements for the three professions and is made in close cooperation with Zealand Business College, a public and national accredited VET provider. The programme has an ‘apprenticeship guarantee’ for all students, which implies that all students enrolling for the Food School are assured an apprenticeship spot in one of Coop supermarkets.
The Food School has been very well received across actors in the system. Among VET students it has also been popular from the beginning. It focuses on students with limited academic learning potential. The main challenge is that some of the enrolled students have weaker social and personal competencies than VET students from normal VET programmes, which may be related to the removal of the grade based entry requirements. Hence, some of the students’ need more support and counseling than regular VET students.
At an overall level the Coop Food School example shows how close cooperation between a VET-school and a company can improve the attractiveness of VET and the matching of skills supply and demand. Furthermore, this example shows how a higher involvement of the business side in the VET-system can also enhance the possibility of improving social inclusion of young people in VET as companies perhaps tend to have a higher focus on young people’s willingness to learn instead of focusing solely on academic skills.
A key feature of this initiative has been to create a vocational qualification that has a stronger component of work-based learning compared to traditional Danish programmes.


Σχολή Θεμάτων Διατροφής της Coop;;;;;