but the first step is the need to acknowledge that there might in fact be a problem and that the vet system needs to take responsibility for addressing it interviews conducted during the visits suggested that even this first step may be a challenge because most young people in these countries leave fulltime schooling after only nine or ten years parttime vocational schools have a special responsibility to provide continuing general education alongside the more occupationallyspecific education that is their main focus in germany dual system students receive only hours annually of general education and that time is divided among the subjects german english sports and economics or social science by contrast danish dual system students spend between and of their time in vocational school this raises the larger question of how to ensure that the broader purposes of schooling are respected in a system principally focused on preparing young people for work