Vocational Education and Training
MBO (Middelbaar Beroeps Onderwijs) is the abbreviation for Vocational Education and Training (VET) in the Netherlands. VET is the main supplier to the labor market and is often regarded as the “foundation of the economy” and the “backbone of society”. Approximately 40% of the Dutch working population have completed a vocational course to at least a secondary vocational training level. There are currently 630,000 students in the MBO sector, 485,000 of them taking part in regular VET courses. The remainder follows adult education programmes.
One of the main topics within this segment is the remodeling of vocational education to competence based vocational education and training in order to meet society’s needs for modern and flexible employees. This shift will lead to a far more flexible and individual based operational structure where the role of ICT gets more and more important.