Skills for young people with special needs

Vittrup Fri Fagskole (independent vocational school) is hosting Special Skills 2025 in Vendsyssel in Denmark. This is a nationwide, non-profit event focused on young people with special needs in the 8th to 10th grades. The Vissing Foundation is supporting Special Skills 2025, which is expected to gather 500 participants.

Practical, hands-on activities give the pupils a chance to try their strength at farming, programming, baking and wellness among other things.
The event consists of four main elements: professional immersion, a practical contest, special events, and accompanying educational materials. The ‘contest’ is adapted to the pupils’ functional level, focusing on providing an experience and achieving success and mastery.

The aim is to give young people with special needs a practice-related introduction to the many opportunities in trade and industry, so they are more clarified and motivated for the future. The Special Skills event focuses on the young people’s resources instead of their limitations, and gives them a day when professionalism and community spirit can interact.

“At Vittrup Fri Fagskole we have taken up our duties as hosts, and with the support of the Vissing Foundation the event will be a valuable investment in both individual young people and local business life,” says Heidi Lykke, acting principal of Vittrup Fri Fagskole.