The government’s billion-dollar effort has not managed to reverse the decline in the number of applications for welfare programs, according to new figures from the Danish University Colleges. Despite the financial incentives for nurses and educators, there are fewer applications this year for programs like teacher, educator, and social worker compared to last year. Only the nursing education program sees a modest increase in the number of applications. Since last year, the number of first-choice applications for the major welfare programs has decreased by six percent overall. Specifically, the educator program experiences a significant decline by 10 percent. Even though educators have been given a monthly pay raise of 1800 kroner from 2026 as part of the government’s salary increase, this is not evident in a press release from the educators’ trade union, BUPL.
Elisa Rimpler, chairman of BUPL, points out that the educator program requires a “long-awaited professional and economic boost” to become more attractive. “We need an attractive education that enjoys greater prestige. The educator program ranks at the bottom when we ask young people which professional programs are most attractive. This is completely untenable, as the direct consequence is that too few choose the education, and we do not have enough educators for the children,” said Rimpler.
The trend of declining applications for welfare programs is not new. In 2015, the four major professional programs had a total of 18,474 applicants, while this year the number has decreased to 11,873 – a decrease of 36 percent.