I work at ROC van Amsterdam MBO College Centrum, a place where students learn about cooking, baking, facility management, tourism and hotel management. Students go to an MBO school after they finish the Dutch version of high school, or secondary school. MBOs are for students who are more interested in getting a practical, hands-on job, which may require less time spent in an academic classroom. At 12, students take a test that decides whether they will go to vocational school (MBO) or whether they will follow a track to what we would think of as college or university.
MBO students range from 15 to 28 years old, and may be even older. All MBO schools are required to accept all applicants, whereas the college and universities do not necessarily have to accept everyone and can turn an applicant away. I had trouble understanding this system at first. How could my students be entering this type of professional education at such a young age? Why, at 12, do they take a test that decides their future educational path? Why would someone want to take a three-year program in facility management (to become a custodian or handyperson, for example)? I have learned to come at the idea of an MBO College with an open mind.
The U.S. perspective on education vs. the Dutch perspective can be very different. Where the U.S.
