Denmark struggles to recruit young professionals for welfare jobs

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (CN) — Denmark desperately needs more hands in the public care sector.

But again this summer, application numbers have dropped for the major welfare-oriented degree programs. The Universities of Applied Science, a professional organization for the schools, registered an overall decline of 6% compared with 2023.

Only nursing programs got a small boost in number of prioritized applications, while the education sector focusing on kindergarten and child care saw a sharp decline of 10%, and 7% fewer people applied for the teacher and social worker programs.  

Amid a national recruitment crisis in the core welfare sector, hopes were that general monthly wage increases of at least 1,800 Danish crowns ($260) would encourage more young Danes to pursue careers in the welfare sector.  

Six months ago, the government made extensive agreements with trade unions and regions to secure better work conditions and compensations in hospitals, schools and institutions, allocating billions to attracts more workers by 2026.

But there is some way to go when it comes to attracting college-aged Danes at the vocational schools. Jens Mejer Pedersen, principal at UCL University College, one of the six affected schools in Denmark, called the situation worrying, albeit hardly surprising, as application numbers have declined by a third over the last decade.

Pedersen said a big part of the explanation is that students are afraid to settle on one job function for the rest of their lives, so they prioritize broader university degrees that appear more open-ended and flexible.

“We see that young people are afraid to make definitive career choices early in life. Some might consider being a school teacher now, but not for the next 40 years,” he said.

Practical schools simply lose the competition against universities, and it does not help that the vast majority of young Danes go to gymnasium — academically focused secondary school — instead of more hands-on trade or technical schools, Pedersen said.

In gymnasium, students exclusively meet teachers with academic degrees, and university becomes the “natural next step.”

To change that dynamic, politicians must reform the system swiftly and establish attractive applied youth educations as well as diverse intermediate higher education opening the door to several future job opportunities for teachers, nurses, social workers and health workers.

“As an education institution, we also need to be better at telling students that they can use their professional degree in a lot of different contexts besides the primary function in the public welfare sector,” Pedersen said.

In contrast, UCL University College has seen booming interest for programs targeting high-profile jobs in the private market and online sectors. The trend is nationwide, with civil engineering programs topping the list for 2024 quota one (grade-based) applicants, and national science programs are also popular. Both fields enjoy above-average pay.

Education minister Christina Egelund addressed the imbalance when the application period closed July 5, calling it “worrying when we are facing times when smaller youth cohorts will cause a shortage of students and labor across sectors.”

At VIVE, the Danish Center for Social Science Research, experts have long sounded alarms over the increasing lack of welfare workers. Especially in light of Denmark facing a generational change with more elderly people, expecting to live longer and require more care, said Mona Larsen, who works at the center.

Simultaneously, birth rates are declining, meaning there will be relatively fewer young people joining the workforce. If Denmark is to continue its world-renowned welfare state with free social benefits for all citizens, schools need to attract more students and the public sector must get better at keeping skilled nurses, social workers and teachers.

“We see relatively high dropout rates in these job sectors. People who graduated change fields or move into the private sector,” Larsen said. “Several of them single out tough work environments and stress. Reality turns out to be very different than what they are taught in school. Many are passionate about offering good care to, for example, the elderly or children. But they end up facing a heavy workload with little time to provide proper quality.”

This fall, the Ministry of Education will present a new reform for vocational welfare education, and hopes are that it can help curb the declining number of applicants already from 2025.

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