Even though the government has continuously advocated the need for ongoing adult education, its 2014 budget agreement proposal suggests significant cuts to adult education support.
Over the next four years, the government wants to slice close to 500 million kroner from the adult education support initiative (SVU), which gives people in work the opportunity to upgrade their skills or further educate themselves.
Rosa Lund, the education spokesperson for far-left party Enhedslisten, said that the idea is misguided and could have drastic long-term consequences.
“SVU is a component of our further education system that functions really well and has ensured that thousands of social workers, nurses and teachers have been able to further educate themselves and become better at what they do,” Lund told DR Nyheder. “I fear that the consequence of the cut will be that they opt against further educating themselves.”
Doing more with less
But according to the minister for higher education, Morten Østergaard (Radikale), the move still targets the government's goal of getting more skilled labourers, but does it with a more targeted use of funds.
“We have to continuously evaluate how we invest the significant amounts of money that we spend on education,” Østergaard told DR Nyheder. “It fits well with our ambitions to improve our education levels and get the unskilled to become skilled and the skilled to further educate themselves.”
The government proposal received support from main opposition party Venstre (V), which highlighted that public spending should be guarded during these times of financial duress.
“We are in a situation where we must prioritise the resources and have the public sector do more with less,” Esben Lunde Larsen, V's research spokesperson, told DR Nyheder.
