6 out of 10 drop out of vocational schools
As parliament prepares to discuss ways to encourage more young people to attend vocational schools, lawmakers are being presented with depressing Education Ministry statistics showing that 56.5 percent of vocational students fail to complete their schooling. The high dropout rate among 15 to 19-year-olds attending erhvervsskoler comes despite intensive efforts to ensure that they complete their programmes. Two of the main reasons identified were a lack of apprenticeships and inadequate academic levels among incoming students. – Politiken
Unnecessary extra school year
Business, labour and local political leaders are calling on parliament to limit the number of young people taking a tenth year of primary school before deciding what type of secondary education to pursue. Currently, students may take an optional tenth year after completing primary school, and many use it as a year to take extra classes. But Dansk Industri, Dansk Metal and the local government association KL now all say that the tenth year should be reserved only for those students who will be unable to complete secondary education without extra help, and that instead of a single year it should be expanded to two if necessary. The education minister, Christine Antorini (Socialdemokraterne), said some changes might be appropriate, but that she was against scrapping the system that allowed students time to “learn about life”. – Berlingske
SEE RELATED: Record number of students accepted to university
Concern over patient data regulation
A number of medical and ethics groups are concerned that pending regulations will make it possible for public authorities to use patient data for “political and administrative purposes”. The groups noted that the types of information in question is normally covered by patient confidentiality laws because they are linked to individuals’ CPR numbers. They say the regulation should not be adopted. Currently patient data is only permitted for use in treatment and research. – Jyllands-Posten
SEE RELATED: Doctors warn of health data abuse
Unfair oil tax
Bayerngas is blaming the government for unequal treatment as it prepares to open negotiations over how much it will be taxed on its gas operations in the Danish North Sea. According to the German-based gas exploration company, AP Moller-Maersk, which also operates in the area, was given a more lucrative tax deal in 2003 than it has been presented with ahead of tomorrow’s opening day of negotiations. Unlike Maersk at that time, Bayerngas stands to be taxed retroactively on its operations. Bayerngas built its case on a report written by a respected Danish economist who has previously called for higher taxes on North Sea oil operations. – Erhverv & Økonomi
SEE RELATED: Doubt over North Sea oil and gas revenue
Businessman slams door on Denmark
Heavy-handed methods employed by tax authority Skat have resulted in entrepreneur and founder of the Pandora jewellery brand Jesper Nielsen moving some of his business operations out of Denmark. The German investor in Nielsen’s new jewellery business, Endless, said he felt “unsafe” about the company being based in Denmark, Nielsen said. Skat last week issued a formal ten-page apology to Nielsen for the way he was treated, but the tax authority maintains that Nielsen and his family owe between 400 million and 600 million in taxes.
SEE RELATED: Model’s tax case ruling opens up can of worms
Chinese tops hirers’ wish lists
Tomorrow’s top job candidates should be just as comfortable speaking Chinese as they are speaking another foreign language, say executives in the most recent Greens Analyseinstitut survey of managing directors. Thirty-eight percent of the 652 executives polled said knowing Chinese would be an important qualification in ten years. By comparison, only nine percent said knowing Chinese was considered to be a main qualification among hirees today. – Børsen
