Frederik @ youth education conference

Yesterday Crown Prince Frederik attended the opening of a "Youth Education for All" conference in Odense at the Odense Conference Centre. For the preceding year local experts have worked in collaboration with seventeen municipalities to actively involve more young people to improve youth education and training. The day was opened by Crown Prince Frederik, who has shown great interest in the work with youth education over many years. After the plans were unveiled, a group of young people told some of their own stories. There were also presentations and discussion sessions in the ten different focus areas of the conference. The organisers were the Municipal System in Denmark, the Ministry of Education and the Centre for Competence Development.



Photos © John Fredy/Fyens Stifstidende

Fyens Stiftstidende 'Kronprinsen: Nysgerrighed drev mig' - The Crown Prince: calls for a good education
(by Helle Hynkemejer, Kenneth Klingenberg and Maria Bundgaard) Crown Prince Frederik could well be used as a model for the many youth who drop out of courses and training every year. Not only did he finish the most demanding lines of vocational education - he also arrived at the conference well-kitted out in a Maserati, which could probably cause some to dream about a future with a well-paid job. But the Crown Prince didn't come to give good advice to the young ones who might wish for a great car for themselves. ...[Crown Prince Frederik] was at the opening of the conference arranged by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Municipal organisations (KL). So [the Crown Prince] took his place among the audience for the panel debate between Minister of Education Bertel Haarder (V), Erik Nielsen, chairman of KL's Arbejdsmarkeds and Industrial and Commercial Committee, Jonathan Simmel, chairman of Erhvervsskolernes Elevorganisation, and Sven Mørch, lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. The conference is to try to answer the question of how to make more young people finish youth courses and how to reduce the number of young people who drop out of education. Chairman of the debate was the TV2 host Cecilie Beck, who began by telling the audience about her own concerns for her daughters: "How will they grow up, and how will they choose a real education?" And then she couldn't help using the Crown Prince by way of example: "The Crown Prince himself is a good example of how far you can go with an education. Wife, children, his own castle and officially he hasn't even begun his career yet," Cecilie Beck said to the great amusement of the Crown Prince and the 500 participants in the conference. After lunch the participants divided into workshops where they discussed integration and education, better supervision of the young people and other things to support the good development of youth. And later in the afternoon actor Peter Mygind recounted how his son has been attacked many times by gangs of boys. "That has given him a great engagement compared to unadapted youth and caused him to speculate about why some youth behave in certain ways, and how Danes can show the kind of social responsibility which can change social conditions so as not to create fertile soil for gangs of boys."


Fyens Stiftstidende webTV (01:50)