More Dutch girls study in technical direction

Dutch girls in HAVO, VWO and MBO increasingly chose to study in a technical direction, though the increase is minimal in VMBO and higher education, Statistics Netherlands reported on Thursday.

In the 2006/2007 school year, 2 percent of girls in HAVO and 6 percent of girls in VWO opted for the Nature and Technology profile. In this school year, that increased to 10 and 28 percent respectively. This increase started in school year 2007/2008, when the renewed second phase was implemented. This made it easier to combine the profiles Nature and Technology and Nature and Health in a range of subjects. The Nature and Technology profile increased in popularity over the past years, and is still the most popular among boys. 

The number of girls obtaining a technical diploma in MBO has been increasing since the 2010/2011 school year. In that year 6 percent of girls in MBO got a technical diploma. In 2016/2017 it was 10 percent. Among boys, this share dropped from 46 percent in 2010/2011 to 41 percent in 2016/2017. 

There was also a minor increase in girls studying a technical direction in VMBO - 3 percent in 2011/2012 and 4 percent in 2016/2017. But the number of boys with a technical profile in VMBO is actually decreasing. Statistics Netherlands partially attributes this to students in VMBO being able to combine components from different sectors since 2007/2008. This is very popular among students, and comes at the expense of other sectors. According to the stats office, technical courses often form part of these programs. 

In HAVO and VWO the proportion of women obtaining a degree in Engineering, Industry or Construction Engineering increased from 2 percent in 2006/2007 to 3 percent in 2015/2016. In the latter year 15 percent of male students obtained such a degree.