Vocational school interdisciplinary as a key to success

Since 1977 the Law of Secondary Training has governed Norwegian secondary schools, regardless if they were offering theoretical or practical training. Through this quarter of a century, the practical training offered by the vocational school has changed significantly, thanks to tight links between the Ministry, the employers' confederations and the Labor Organization. These powerful partners have methodically changed the scope and content of the vocational schools in particular from traditional training to a theoretically based training resembling technical education. "Interdisciplinary" has been a keyword governing the transformation process. On the other hand, carrying out interdisciplinary has also contributed to concealing the value of the "new" vocational school as an important source of engineering school recruitment. Thus, the interdisciplinary learning program for the training of electricians is described and test results presented indicating why vocational school graduates are now considered attractive applicants for electrical engineering programs.