Abstract
This paper was written by Gijsbert van Liemt, an independent consultant on employment and skills policies, and a former ILO official working on Active Labour Market Policies. His paper discusses secondary technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in the Netherlands, highlighting the role of TVET in regional training centres which offer a broad range of programmes at different levels. It identifies reasons why Dutch TVET has received international attention, and examines the role of the social partners in this system, as well as the initiatives by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to change the framework over recent years. It provides a brief overview of the Dutch labour market and labour relations and of the main sources of labour market information, before discussing the role of business in secondary TVET, its place in the overall education system, government policies and related issues. It also covers the salaries, working conditions and job satisfaction of teachers and trainers.