Accumulation of responsibilities creates pressure and stress for students in senior secondary vocational education

Students in senior secondary vocational education who experience performance pressure and stress indicate that this is due to an accumulation of responsibilities. This includes work placements combined with full days of study and, for some, tensions and responsibilities at home. More skills and support to deal with these responsibilities seem to be necessary. Greater recognition and better future prospects are also important, to create more equality among students in senior secondary vocational education and students in higher professional and academic education.

These are the main conclusions of the report Als je door de bomen het bos niet meer ziet (When you can no longer see the wood for the trees) by the Trimbos Institute, Utrecht University, the Expertise Centre for Inclusive Education (ECIO), Pharos and the Erasmus SYNC Lab. On 18 September, the report and a handbook of possible solutions will be presented to Her Majesty Queen Máxima (honorary chair of MIND Us), Secretary-General of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science Loes Mulder and Adnan Tekin of the MBO Council at Albeda College in Rotterdam.

Among other things, emotional problems and a lack of control are linked to perceived pressure.

Individual, social, societal

The report uses data from the Youth Got Talent study, one of the projects within Dynamics of Youth. For this study, over 1,200 students in senior secondary vocational education from Utrecht completed a questionnaire. According to Loïs Schenk, a youth researcher at Utrecht University and one of the authors of the report, a number of individual, social and societal factors are associated with perceived pressure among students in senior secondary vocational education. “Emotional problems and a lack of control, as well as issues such as a lack of support from family and teachers, a lack of trust in institutions and experiencing discrimination due to their level of education, are all related to perceived pressure.”

More information on the report can be found on the website of the Trimbos Institute.