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N IO T lT CA cia U e Sp ED IAL H IS PEC N S DA m he
The students work from idea to design to finished product.
An educational journey – for life Entrepreneurship is for everyone. This premise has shaped the framework around New Nordic Youth, a Danish continuation school with focus on design and entrepreneurship. The purpose? To give the students the tools they need to shape their future work life. By Camilla Pedersen | Photos: New Nordic Youth
Located in North Zealand, 60 kilometres from Copenhagen and with the refreshing sea and the calming forest nearby, the surroundings of New Nordic Youth are just as inspiring as its curriculum. Traditional subjects such as maths, Danish and English are of course part of the curriculum, but what really characterises the school is what is defined as four areas of competence: media design, business, tech and creative. “Skillsets in these four areas will play a crucial role in the future, which is why we want to offer the students 72 | Issue 133 | February 2020
a framework to explore, create and collaborate – as an investment not only in their own future, but also in society,” explains Jane Holstein, co-founder and principal.
Creativity, collaboration and community At the start of each school year, the students get a few weeks to explore the four areas of competence before they decide which one they want to specialise in. “They then get to dive deep into the various topics that fall under the respective
areas, and later they collaborate on projects across competency areas, while also learning project management tools that help them structure it all. It’s the start of a beautiful educational journey – a journey that shapes the students in so many ways,” says Holstein, “not just because of the realisation that collaboration and community are key, as we can’t handle the challenges of the world alone, but also because we’re all naturally attracted to people we can identify with, people we have something in common with. Great things happen when we shake things up and get to create and collaborate with people who are seemingly very different to us. This is a valuable life lesson – one of the many lessons that, in just one year here at New Nordic Youth, help form whole human beings.”