DNS Necessary Teacher Training College

Eat what you pick! Experience living in the community! Join political discussions! Study, Volunteer and Travel in the SAME TIME!
The campus is situated on the west coast of Denmark surrounded by the beautiful nature. The residents of this place are very friendly, supportive and open-minded. I have always received help when I needed. I would never believe I could find the place like this.

The DNS 3 year programme, is more than just an education. My father often calls it a school of life. Where else would :
- you learn how to transform a bus into a house on wheels?
- you go off from Denmark to Guinea Bissau, for a 4 months travel in a 28 year old bus?
- you hitchhike all around Europe to give presentations about your breathtaking travel?
- you learn how to build a house?
- you would live in a community with people from different countries?
- you would learn about garden farming?
- you would move to an European city with your classmates to be an active part of the society and learn from it?
- you would travel for 3 months and fulfill a project that you have always dreamed of?
- you would have an amazing 8 months teaching practice with the possibility to experiment?
....
And this is just a little part of what you can learn in DNS, besides the academical studies.
DNS education will make out of you "another kind of person", somebody lively, open minded, full of ideas and initiatives, a wonderful teacher and a very brave human being!

DNS - is a School of Life

I’m here because I think that education is the tool for creating better world for all of us. I think the aim of education is to educate tolerant, open minded and responsible world citizens. For myself as a teacher I set demand to create for my students conditions that they would discover these values by themselves.

I’m part of DNS The Necessary Teacher Training College since 2012. I came to this teacher training college because I had a dream to become a teacher. I wanted to learn how to share knowledge and experiences that I have with others. But I discovered that to be DNS teacher is much more - it becomes your lifestyle.
I think to be DNS team teacher is one of the most beautiful, encouraging and the most demanding, challenging job you could have. I find myself in extraordinary interesting situations. For instance, having team meetings till late night, fixing the bus together with students somewhere in Western Sahara, driving the bus, cooking, working in the garden, organizing events, giving courses, going together with students for investigations, traveling around Europe and giving presentations, learning how to be together.

Challenging, challenging, challenging; but all the challenges are learning points. It's not simply a training to become teachers but it develops stronger, open minded and lively people. I joined the program straight after high school and I am extremely glad I did so. Here I am, in fact, enriching myself in many different aspects each day. I got the space and support for improvements , for failures, for utter learning.

DNS is an unique education, a programme which push your limits and pull you out of your confort zone. A place for people who want to take actions and cooperate together in order to make the world a better place. Travelling, studying, working, experiences, community life, and peace. I'm very greatfull i took the desicion to join it and day by day i'm learning something new and i'm challenged by the programme. I wish for all the people to try this amazing life changing experience.

A lot of people quit the program during the 6-12 month 'saving up' period where you work (often at the school) before the program starts. I was one of those people who quit before it started after spending about half a year there.
I like the idea of the place and the people, there are many many good happenings. It is inspiring for sure.
The reasons I quit,
It was too hard work. During the program you have no days off. Your up and at breakfast every morning, cleaning and doing other tasks before your day starts.
You only get about two weeks off a year, for three-four whole years.
You can get 'cabin fever' here. It's a small isolated place with no easy transport options
There seems to be the idea that the students make decisions but actually after some time it felt that the teachers made the decisions. I felt very powerless actually, which is not the idea.
Another thing I didn't like was having to work in promoting the program. I didn't like to say 'this program is great, you should do it' when actually I hadn't started it yet.
Also, when I decided to quit I noticed things that made me glad about my decision. The people there were not interested in my reasons for leaving, even though probably 50-75% of people quit, they don't seem to want to listen to these people and change in any way. Actually in the few days before my travel home some teachers and students stopped talking to me altogether, it was very cold. One teacher only said one thing to me in the whole time, which was knocking on my door to ask why I wasn't helping with cleaning. Many people did not say goodbye. It's a small thing but it made me realise this place is like, your either 'in' or 'out'. And once your out people change and you realise it's almost cult-like.
The most thing I missed when I left was the wonderful people I met. I you want to have a very crazy very demanding very unusual experience where you will learn a lot, go here.

One of the best choices of my life for now. Challenging, exausting, mind-blowing, sometimes overwhelming, but totally worth it.
It is another kind of college, where you together with your team create an education for yourself. It depends basically on you how will you make it happen. You're all the time pushed think outside the box and have an overview of the bigger picture. You're pushed to question, investigate and look for alternative solutions.
In short words, it's a place where critical, mindfull and creative human beings blossom.

Starting and finishing this education was the best choice of my life.

It was an extremely active time!
Theoretical knowledge is of a little use if it abstracts from reality, so I was happy to investigate and do stuff. Here, I have learned how to travel, and travelled to learn in Africa, India, Europe, wherever. It had nothing to do with tourism and it was much more fun.

I got awareness about the complexity of our world and its unfairness. I also gained tools how to take a stand towards it and act upon.

What’s the best way of becoming a teacher than being a teacher? Here, I was one from Day 1 for the most vulnerable like youngsters with special needs as well as for my teammates. And there are no teachers just standing there and making monologues. They rather create conditions for us to learn, which is provoking, which is good.

Actually, many things are provoking here. For example, the students and teachers together govern and run the school. Actually, we decided in common about how we implemented the programme but also quite trivial matters: should we have only vegetarian food for breakfast? Often it was too much, really, too many meetings. But, what I liked was that every once in a while we completely changed how we managed things. And, we decided to build a chicken house!

Teachers are constantly there, 24/7, live together with us. They didn’t just teach but also supported me, which is quite important for a young person away from home with no income. At the same time, they challenged me a lot! They also do humble work: cleaning, cooking, fixing stuff etc. Well, it’s not that I appreciated all of it at that time. :)

It is a hard work to be here, intensive physically and socially… on the other hand, my needs and many wants are part of the programme.

There are no drugs and no alcohol, which I appreciate a lot. The parties and relationships have content and it is possible to do so much more!

I finished my education with no debts. Saving-up periods, teaching practice and common economy are not only to learn from but solve many economic issues. Anyway, it didn’t cover all the expenses, but the college solved it by running the care homes that could generate some income.

An interesting thing: each team has its own account and is responsible for how to earn money and how to spend it. Thanks to that, there was not so much division for rich and poor as elsewhere.

When you finish, you have a bachelor degree – sometimes it gets recognised, sometimes it doesn’t. Well, if having a good paper is very important for you, don’t join this college. If you want to learn a lot, go on.

But don’t get fooled: all the above doesn’t just come! YOU are responsible for all that and YOU have to create it with your hard work. But, I think it is worth it!