Since 2012, policy frameworks in MBO have referred not only to physical activity and sports, but have also added healthy lifestyles. Since then, attention to healthy lifestyles has been increasing within MBO institutions, as evidenced by a growing number of Healthy School certificates and the pooling of organisations and initiatives focused on health themes in education.

This is evident from the baseline measurement of physical activity, sports and healthy lifestyles in MBO conducted by the Mulier Institute. For this purpose, an online questionnaire was distributed among members of the MBO Council’s Sports and Healthy Lifestyle platform and among Healthy School coordinators in MBO. MBO institutions at which no one had been surveyed through either of these two channels were contacted by telephone and asked who could complete the questionnaire on behalf of the institution. The questionnaire was completed 33 times. In addition, a chapter was included on healthy lifestyles according to MBO students themselves, based on data from TestJeLeefstijl.nl. This study will be repeated in four years so that developments over time can be monitored.

Other important findings include:

  • The majority of respondents indicate that at their location, physical activity or sports classes are a permanent part of the curriculum for students (70%), most often in vocational education and training programmes (57% of the 70%).
  • The main reasons for offering physical activity and sports programmes are to contribute to students’ health (71%), to raise awareness of the importance of physical activity for a healthy working life (67%) and to contribute to a positive school climate (67%).
  • All respondents indicate that at their location, one or more classes address health themes, particularly nutrition (91%), physical activity and sports (85%) and smoking, alcohol and drug prevention (82%).
  • All locations pay attention to the healthy lifestyles of staff by offering a cycling scheme (82%), addressing physical and social wellbeing in performance reviews (76%) and implementing a smoking policy (67%).
  • Data on several lifestyle behaviours of MBO students themselves show that three quarters of students under the age of 18 occasionally drink alcohol (75%), even though this is strongly discouraged in alcohol guidelines. The data also show that MBO students participate in sports at least once a week less often (59%) than their peers (17- to 20-year-olds, 69%). Thirty-two percent of MBO students aged 18 and over are overweight, which corresponds to the national figures (34% of adults aged 18-34 are overweight).

Click here for the report ‘Physical activity, sports and healthy lifestyles in secondary vocational education’.