Monitor of the Expertise and Technology Route: the Theory Behind the Policy

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has commissioned SEO Economic Research, in collaboration with the Kohnstamm Institute and ecbo, to monitor the experiments with continuous VMBO-MBO pathways in a monitoring programme throughout the entire period of the experiments (2014-2022). The monitoring programme comprises three parts: an evaluation of returns, a process evaluation and an explanatory evaluation.

The report reconstructing the theory behind the policy explains why the experiments have been launched. It sets out the aims of the policy and the assumptions/hypotheses on how the experiments will contribute to achieving those aims. In a nutshell, the aim of the experiments is to organize teaching more efficiently and bring it more into line with the needs of participants and employers. Important mechanisms are shortening the route and making it more attractive, with a smoother transition between VMBO and MBO, and involving employers in the teaching programme sooner and more closely.

At a later stage of the monitoring programme we shall check whether these mechanisms and outcomes are actually happening, and carry out case studies to examine implementation factors as well: what works, for whom, and why? Consideration will also be given explicitly to unforeseen effects.

Simultaneously with the report on the theory behind the policy a report on the baseline survey has been published: what are the trends in pupil numbers and performance prior to the experiments? This report can be found under No. 2015-01.