Samenvatting

Fifty years after its launch, the European Union still has not succeeded in attracting the appropriate level of interest and the full support of EU citizens. Informing citizens about the European Union is a task of the government and the media, so that people gain knowledge and form an opinion about the EU. Informing people is however first and foremost a task of the school. The educational systems should ensure that pupils by the end of their secondary education have the knowledge and competences they need so that they are prepared on their role as future citizens of Europe. If pupils are to make educated choices about their roles in Europe, it is therefore important that a European dimension be included within education. Almost 60% of all secondary school pupils in the Netherlands attend pre-vocational secondary education (VMBO) and it is the form of education in which the least attention is being paid to the European Union. The European Parliament established offices in almost all EU member states with informing the citizens on developments in the European Union as their main task. The Office of the European Parliament in The Hague sees it as one of its important tasks to inform and involve VMBO pupils too, but the question was how? Policy makers, teachers and location managers of VMBO schools and key persons from relevant organisations have been interviewed and literature has been studied to find answers. This research first of all describes the current situation of the European dimension in pre-vocational secondary education by explaining the policy framework in which schools operate. It has been examined how the European dimension is reflected in the core aims and final terms set by the Ministry of Education and whether this policy framework offers enough chances for schools to intensify the European citizenship of their pupils. Besides the policymakers, there are other parties involved in the education about European citizenship. They think that the policies and the standard teaching methods don't always serve as handles for schools to prepare their pupils on their role as European citizens. They explain what they think is necessary to teach VMBO pupils and which initiatives these teachers and policy executors have taken to that end. Descriptions of the parties involved and a clear exposition of the current European dimension in educational policies and extra curricular teaching methods can be found. The list of initiatives provides an overview of which stakeholders make which contribution to intensify the experience of European citizenship in VMBO education. Opinions about the policies and initiatives are expounded, after which ideas are generated for new or existing initiatives that should be more widely spread. Afterwards a conclusion is formulated regarding the actions that the various parties need to take in order to intensify the experience of VMBO pupils' European citizenship, in specific, what the main task of the Office of the European Parliament in the Netherlands will have to be in that respect.