The end….

Sadly, today was the very last day of our GSE adventure in Denmark!

I was going to use the Danish word for ‘end’ in the title of this blog but then I thought that it may be a little confusing for our Australian relatives and friends!

Tomorrow we all head our separate ways, Marian will be travelling to Germany, Phylis to Italy, Elizabeth to Norway, Laura to Bali and your-truly will be travelling straight back to Adelaide (someone has to work!!).

Anyhoo, our day went something like this…..

Minus one soldier (Laura was unfortunately sick for the day and had to recover at home), we began with a guided tour of the large oceanic fishing vessel, “Isafold” which was moored at Hirtshals and unloading a catch. The modern ship was ordered in 2004, partially constructed in Poland and completed in Skagen during May 2006. After receiving a presentation on the ship’s history from Karsten Moelgaard, we were shown the Bridge before moving through the Engine room (the most interesting part of the ship!!). The vessel has four diesel engines; a primary 6120Hp engine and three smaller auxilliary engines used for generating electrical power on-board. The catch (typically Mackerel, Herring or smaller fish used for fish meal) is stored in chilled water tanks for which the capacity is around 2300 cubic metres. We were all impressed at the cleanliness and apparent comfort levels on the ship – crew have access to satallite TV, internet and even a small gymnasium during expeditions in the North Sea which may last for over a week.

Afterwards we moved onto the Nordic Seafood facility in Hirtshals where we received an overview of the Nordic Seafood company from Lars Olsen (Sales Director). Nordic Seafood was founded in Hirtshals in 1988 and is now part of a global supply chain owned by two of the largest fish production companies in the world, Nissui in Japan and Sealord Group Ltd in New Zealand. The global corporation has an annual turn over in excess of $4 billion EUR.

We were all very impressed with the view out across the North Sea from Lars’s office!

Following the introduction, we were taken on a tour through some of the cold stores where Nordic Seafood stock and distribute over 1000 varieties of product. As one of the largest distributors of frozen fish and shellfish throughout Europe, one of the challanges for Nordic Seafood is to correctly label all packaging in the correct language and in compliance with regulations and client needs, which may vary considerably across the 25 or so European destination countries.

At this time we all felt it was necessary to check the quality of the Nordic Seafood products, just to make sure they were Ok! We were lucky enough to be given a sample (which was almost lunch in itself!) of some of their produce which included crumbed prawns and some excellent soft calamari!!

Everyone enjoyed their little seafood snack and it was now time for a Bistro lunch at the Bryggeriet Vendia (Brewery) in Hjoerring!! The meals were fantastisk, especially when washed down with a few Vendia ales!

Afterwards we were taken to the Hjoerring Bibliotekerne (Library) which was completed about 3 years ago and is now regarded as one of the best Libraries in Europe. The Library is very modern and offers a lot of electronic media including DVDs, music, video and computer games. The interior design is really special and there are many quiet little corners where one can curl up and read a book or watch a video (TVs are located at the end of special corridors for example). I was amused (and tempted!) by the slippery dip for children, hidden between some book shelves!

We were then given a few hours free time which the girls gleefully used for shopping purposes! I climbed Mount Hjoerring (a challenging 80m climb!) with Kristian!

In the evening we gave our final presentation to the Hirtshals, Hjoerring and Hjoerring morning Rotary clubs. We took the opportunity to talk about what we have learnt in Denmark, and what we’ve gained from the GSE experience. The evening was topped off with fantastic speeches from Asbjorn Isaksen (District Governor) and Finn Munk (GSE Chairman) and then we all said our goodbyes (with a few tears, mainly from Marian!).

It’s the final count down!!!

After a great morning our final vocational visit at Kaerkommen (Laura and myself) we were picked up and taken to Vra Hojskole, a “folk” High School. Where we caught up with Marion and had a great lunch in the cafeteria with the students. After that we managed to go outside and wait to depart for our next destination, it was great to spend a little time out relaxing and taking in the sun.

We were then off to Borglum Monastery. In the middle ages, Borglum was the main power base in Vendsyssel. From here, the entire province was governed by kings, bishops and ascots, and when matters of national interest had to be settled, ” the voice of Borglum” mis certainly had to be heard.

The monastery has some open areas where we were lucky enough to look around. The royal estate was where the king Canute the holy stated while inhabitants of Vendysyssel instigated the rebellion that ended in the kings’s death.

During the middle ages the east wing was in three story’s and adjoined the church. This is where the dormitory and the canons’ “shaving room” were situated. The south wing was in two story’s and there was a wooden gallery overlooking the court yard. The west wing housed the kitchen, the scullery, the bakery and at the northern end a malt house. The north wing was also two story building with tiled roof and a gallery with a wooden staircase overlooking the courtyard. In 1622, the rooms used in the monastic days to accommodate guests were still I use and were probably where the kings stayed whenever they visited Borglum. The north wing is still commonly referred to as the “kings wing”

The court yard was where we were told by Hans the current owner of the estate, it is believed that years ago when he was younger and heating systems in the building was being dug into the ground in the court yard, they found many remains of human bones in the area. If you look closely you can actually see that a square of stones, these were graves it was said that there was more then one person buried in the grave.

After a great look around the court yard and the church there was many story’s Hans was able to tell us. We visited a grave site where today Hans grandparents and uncle lay to rest. He was an interesting story to read about Hans uncle who was shot by police offices in September 1942.

We visited on of the exhibitions and come to realize more that in fact this monastery has a lot of history in it and the fact that we were being guided around by Hans who was not only the owner who lived there but the stories were a history of his family, who had been the purchases this area back in 1835.

Today, Hans and his wife Anne, have 2500 m2 exhibition area to look at. And each year it is renewed. There are also 437 hectares of arable farm land which is used for growing wheat, rape seed, grass seed, and some willow for energy production. This monastery church is one of the last privately owned public churches in Denmark. And since no grant is provided the upkeep of the buildings are financed by income from tourism and farming. This is why I think we had no issues about stopping in the gift shop on the way out and making a couple of purchases.

Thanks goes to Hans for showing us around and giving us the oppitunity to look at his past family history. It was an experience to be able to see that has been a lot of work put into making the family history live in today!

Fitness is the key!

Wednesday 28th September:

After clearing a slight double-up of Laura’s vocational program (what would’ve been her third visit to Hjorring Sygehus), it was decided that I would tag along with Phyllis instead, which turned out to be semi-related to my job anyway! Phyllis and I visited a privately-owned aged care company called Kaerkommen – an organisation that provides at-home care to the elderly and handicapped persons.

We were given a history of the company by Susanna, sister of the founder of the company, Vibeke Haaning. Vibeke originally studied a nursing degree. She worked in Norway, where she first noticed that they had private care there that was not available in Denmark at the time. She first started her own private cleaning company called “Blaeksprutten” (meaning Octopus), which soon developed services for gardening and nursing as well. Before 2003, the council alone handled aged care for the area, but Vibeke was a bit disappointed with the  public health sector in Denmark and sought to change it. Eventually the council started to allow private companies to provide aged care services to the community, and now Kaerkommen’s funding is provided by the council (ie. the taxpayers) – the company has taken over the role that the council once provided, but the council still sets aside the budget for the services and allows the companies to use the money. The usual process of assessment for these services involves a representative from the council visiting the elderly person and assessing their needs. The person can then choose whether they want to receive services from a private company or directly from the council.

Next we spoke with Pia, the Health Promotions Manager, whose job it is to encourage good health amongst employees. Pia studied a Diploma of Health, and now runs educational programs for the company’s employees to help them make good lifestyle choices – a happy worker is a good worker! 🙂 The stats we saw were quite alarming – in Denmark, 40% of hospitilisation is due to poor lifestyle choices, and it is predicted that in 10 years time this will attribute to 70% of hospitilisation. Kaerkommen applied for a grant for health promotion within the company, and received 2.7 million Kroner to do so. They now provide their employees with access to a local gym circuit, which we got to try out 😉

   

It was very interesting for both of us to have a change of scene for our vocational visit, and very rewarding, as we were able to burn off a few excess calories from all the beautiful food and alcohol we’ve sampled here in Denmark! Thank you to Susanna, Pia, and of course the Rotary Club of Hjorring for organising our visit!

What’s the story morning glory…..

With an early start to the day and the alarm buzzing at 6 am we were off to our final presentation to the morning Rotary club of Frederikshavn. There are two clubs in and we had spent the past three days with all the members of the morning club.

It was a very relaxed morning meeting we had a great buffet at the hotel on the top floor where the weekly meeting is every Tuesday at 7 am. We then spent time with the hosts and organisers of our visit to review our three day stay with them. I was very happy to say that we all had great views to report.

After that we were off back home to change from our formal suits and relax and pack. 11.30 came around and we were off to the shopping street to help put some kroner back into the Danish economy. After a little shopping we all caught up for lunch where we all enjoyed a club sandwich and a nice cider.

After lunch it was back to our host families to relax and spend a little time with them. Some of us organised a package to be sent home. My package managed to weigh in at 11.25 kilos ( not sure where all that come from) but I was happy to send it home and not carry it around for the next couple of weeks. After some issues at the post office we were off to our final club in Hjorring.

Running a little behind schedule we arrived at Hjorring where we were greeted by our new hosts. The day ended with time to relax with a nice red wine and a great chat getting to know our hosts.

Final vocational visit

Today was the last vocational visit for our GSE adventure in Denmark, where I visited the Vra Hojskole, a “folk” High School.

There are approximately 60 students in the school ranging in age from 18-25. They come from a variety of countries including Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Ghana, Venezuala as well as Danish students. The focus at this school is mostly on non-traditional subjects such as photography, photo journalism, music, textile craft and learning Danish as a second language. Maximum class sizes were about 8 students.

Most students attend for a semester period of 3 months, however some continue for a second semester. The students live-in at the school and are expected to complete other tasks such as setting tables, cleaning areas of the school etc. The students pay approximately $1000 per month for attending this school. Most pay to attend however some who may be longer term unemployed are supported by the commune. Several students from countries from the eastern Bloc receive assistance from the European Union to attend.

There is no assessment process or certificate at the end, however most of the courses complete some form of finished product. For example, the textile group will complete making items such as handbags or clothing, the music group will make a CD and the journalist group would have something published on the net.

It was interesting to note that because of the range of nationalities, quite often English was the preferred language. The students have specific timetables as in other schools and must complete 1 major and 1 minor subject. They also have the opportunity to do personal interest subjects such as fitness or dance.

The school is not formally checked for its curriculum content, however there may be random checks by the governemnt to check budgets etc.

It was interesting to note that today was “conversation”day in Denmark and groups around the country would form to discuss a specific topic. All the students were expected to attend at 7pm tonight for a discussion session, in English, on the topic of responsibility.

It proved to be an interesting and informative day. Thank you Knud for the tour and information.

 

Frederikshavn 26 September 2011

This morning started with another vocational visit. We met up for lunch around 1pm at Vaegteren, another delicious lunch! Next we headed off to FME (Frederikshavn Maritime Park) where the Chief Executive gave us a brief history of the area and what it was being used for today as well as a tour of the main building. The area was originally a shipyard but closed in the 1990’s, the main building which was
originally a grain silo has been refurbished and is now office space that is available for rent, other buildings within the park are also rented out and currently have a 97% occupancy rate.

From here we went to my hosts (Morten Klaestup) business, his business has offices in Frederikshavn
Maritime Park. The company is called Seafood Sales and is a commodity trading company dealing almost exclusively in frozen Seafood. Their products are distributed to processing industry, retailers and wholesalers worldwide.

The day seemed to have gone very quickly and we were all off to our hosts for the evening, I believe all of them had prepared us a delicious dinner! Tomorrow morning we are preparing for an early start with a 7am breakfast meeting.

Danish Education continues to amaze!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit another Danish School. As with the previous schools, this one also has classes from Year 0 (Reception) to Year 9 on the same campus. There were pproximtely 350 children at this school.

Thanks to my current host Suzanna I went for a tour of Haanbaeck School where she teaches Danish and German. The school is in a working class area of Fredrikshavn which was great because it gave me the chance to see how a more culturally diverse school operates.

As with previous schools, the class average sizes were about 22-23 students. I had the chance to once again do a powerpoint presentation… this time to 2 separate Year 8 classes, a Year 6 class and a Year 3 class. Everyone enjoyed the chance to hear about Australian animals and to find out what it would be like to be a student in Australia. Many didn’t like the idea of having to wear a uniform however they did like the idea of experiencing warmer weather and beaches. Many were amazed at the number of dangerous and poisonous creatures in our country.

I was particularly interested to see how the school dealt with special needs children. Several of these students come from outside the town area to attend this school because of the support structures available to children with Aspergers and Autism.

It was amazing to see that each year level has its own separate classes for children with Aspergers. I observed a class of Year 9’s of just 9 students who had 2 full time teachers working with them. This was consistent across the school where these classes were very small and had 2 teachers working with these children full time. These students had very little contact with mainstream classes.

The autism class had 4 students with 2 teachers working full time.

The expectation however was that these children with Aspergers would be expected to complete the Year 9 test along with the rest of the students and to succeed. Extra funding is provided for these students for items such as laptops etc. This is paid by the commune or district council.

After the Year 9 test these Aspergers students attend one of the 3 higher education strands as do the rest of the Year 9’s. These students are tracked by their current teachers until they reach the age of 18. Those who don’t do well in the test will go on to Adult Education courses.

The Year 9 test is very comprehensive. Students complete tests in Danish (Oral + Written)… English… students have to read an English article for 20 minutes and then respond to it in English… Maths ( a 4 hour exam)…Physics…Biology or Geography….German…History….etc.

Students learn history from Year 3, English from Year 3 and German from Year 6. Again another eventful and fun filled day.

 

Filomena’s Vocational visit to Skilod in Saeby

Skiold A/S is one of the leading manufactures of feed milling, feeding and ventilation equipment in Europe. They have a main office for production, sales, service an stock in the town of Saeby in Denmark, sales and services offices are also in Ikast and Herlufmagle in Denmark.

Outside of Denmark they have a production office in Poland and also sales offices in both Russia and Sweden.

It was founded in 1877 and now is over 100 years old, it is family owned busy and currently being run by the fourth generation of this family.

Their main range of products they deliver is equipment for Stable, feed milling industry, this consists of Feeding systems, ventilation systems, feed mills & silo plants, management systems, complete project and other industry projects.

I was lucky enough to visit the main office in Saeby. We were greeted by Martin, who only just got off a plane from Australia on Saturday, where he had just finished discussions with an Australian company by the name of Vacuum & Milling Solutions P/L and had purchased 50% of this business which is run in Brisbane in Queensland Australia.

It was interesting to see that there has been many employees who have worked in the company there is a celebration for every employee who stays for a 25 years.

Laura’s vocational visit #6 in Frederikshavn!

Monday 26th September:

Today I visited…can you guess? Correct – another hospital in my host’s local area, in Frederikshavn (which worked out well because it was close to the main shopping mall). Pia, one of the Rotarians in Frederikshavn, had organised for me to go around the pathology laboratory of Frederikshavn Hospital with Joan, who is the educator for new employees and students training in the field of laboratory science. Joan is also responsible for liaison with the general practitioners in the council area – a very busy lady! I visited Frederikshavn last week to see the mobile bloodbank bus, but today I was able to go inside the hospital’s laboratory. The analytical biochemistry department has 16 staff, 6 of whom work at one time together. They have an on-call roster for overnight, as the nearest 24hr laboratory is 33km away in Hjorring – Frederikshavn Hospital is a sector of the larger Hjorring Hospital, so the two laboratories often work together.

Denmark is one of the few countries where the laboratory staff are trained to take blood from the patients as well – I think it is a great and useful skill to teach the lab staff, as different labs have quiet and busy periods, and it is good use of time for the lab staff to help the nurses/collectors when they are busy – it gets the work done faster, and the results sent out to the doctor quicker. Joan also mentioned that the education sector has had a 100% increase in the uptake of students, as the mean age of the scientists in the industry in Denmark now is around 55 years old. We have a similar situation in Australia, with many of the experienced scientists close to retirement and few people to take over their roles.

I was given a quick overview of the education pathway for a Bioanalyst in Denmark. Up until about 3 years ago there were only 2 schools for training – there are now 5 schools, so there has really been a push and a focus to get more scientists into the labs. A Bachelor Program in Biomedical Laboratory Analysis in Denmark takes 3 1/2 years to complete, and it is much the same in Australia. The School of Health Sciences runs this program to train graduates to work independently as a laboratory technician within 6 different specialities: Clinical Biochemistry, Clinical Immunology, Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Clinical Microbiology, Pathology and Anatomy, and Clinical Neurophysiology. Joan and I talked about the similarities in the structure of the degree – although I studied a Bachelor of Biomedical Science program (aimed more towards medical research as opposed to medical laboratory science), the system of both countries is extremely similar, with lots of practical time given to students.

After a tour of the laboratory and the hospital, we sat down and had a long discussion – I learn quite a lot on these vocational visits, but it’s nice when the person showing around has questions for me too, because we quickly learn about each others’ work places and regulations, and we can maybe pick up a better method here and there to take back to our respective workplaces 🙂 Thank you to Rotary for organising this visit, and of course to Joan for taking the time out from her workload in Hjorring and travelling to Frederikshavn just to show me around.

 

Curling – lawn bowls on ice??

Today started with a visit to the ice arena where we had a go at Curling, we had some instructors showing us what to do but still resulted in a few interesting incidents. We learnt how to roll/slide the stones (the polished granite stones weigh about 20kg each) down the ice and sweep the ice to make the stones roll further. The aim was to get your stones as close to the bullseye (marked in the ice) as possible, similar to lawn bowls you received a point for each stone that was closest to the bullseye before one of your oppositions stones was closer. We were playing for about an hour and a half before we headed to our next destination.

It was a beautiful calm and sunny day so we walked to our next destination Mollehuset for brunch/lunch, this was a lovely location where we could see a forest and stream from the restaurants windows, and the lunch was pretty delicious too! We were all quite hungry after our morning spent curling. After lunch we took a stroll through Bangsbo forest, home to some lovely gardens and made even more beautiful by autumn having its effect on the deciduous trees, we were even lucky enough to see a male reindeer on our walk.

Next stop we saw the Frederikshavn Brass Band who were preparing for a competition in November in Copenhagen, they played several songs for us, we were all very impressed with their playing and thank wish them all the best in the competition!!

From here we made our way to Bangsbo Fort, a German fortification set up in the 1940’s to protect the
harbour and ensure their supply lines to Norway it consists of bunkers housing canons and anti aircraft weapons. The cannons on display are from the captured Danish frigate the “Niels Juel” and fire 15cm artillery rounds. Our tour guide Peter was very enthusiastic and provided us with a wealth of information.

This was our tours over for the day and we headed back home with our hosts for the evening.