Tech-Tur

Every year, thousands of young people move across Denmark to live in student residences while pursuing a vocational education. This is an often overlooked group of young people who often struggle to feel part of a community. Although they live under the same roof, they are often divided by their different fields of study.

Students from 40 different vocational programmes – including future welders, hairdressers, electricians, and chefs – live side by side without necessarily interacting. This lack of social cohesion can lead to loneliness and poor well-being, both of which contribute to the high dropout rates in vocational education – a persistent challenge across Denmark's vocational education system.

Tech-Tur is a pilot project developed in collaboration between Aalborg Techcollege and ROSA. It combines the opportunity for emerging professional artists to tour, gain valuable live performance experience, and connect with young audiences across Denmark, while at the same time strengthening social communities at vocational schools.

The project brings professional live music directly to the student residences at vocational schools, where the concerts provide a shared experience that brings students together across programmes and disciplines.

At each student residence, student host teams are formed to welcome the band, organize a communal dinner, and facilitate an informal post-concert conversation.

“In this way, live music becomes a vehicle for something bigger. The students are not just members of the audience – they are active participants in creating the experience. It's a way of fostering ownership, building relationships, and creating new communities,” says Anders Ovesen, Project Manager of Tech-Tur.

Jesper Brøsted, Educational Coordinator at Aalborg Techcollege, sees firsthand how fragmented life can be at a student residence that accommodates students from more than 40 different vocational programmes.

He believes the concerts can help address the lack of community:

“Live music has the power to bring people together—young and old alike, and across different fields of study.”

Jesper continues:

“We recently carried out a survey asking students about their experience of these concerts. Among those who attended, 85% said they were positively or very positively surprised.”

The regional television station TV 2 Fyn joined the Tech-Tur concert in Odense – watch it here.

Building on a strong foundation of experience

The concept builds on the experiences of ROSAs long-running E-Tur programme, which has demonstrated its value at Danish "efterskoler" over the past 18 years. During that time, more than 100,000 students have attended over 800 concerts.

The initial pilot collaboration with Aalborg Techcollege, launched in 2024, has shown that the potential is considerable. Students have experienced performances by artists of the same calibre as those appearing at the Roskilde Festival, creating memorable live music experiences.

More importantly, these shared experiences have proven to be effective social icebreakers, encouraging students to talk to one another and form new friendships.

Through the project, the partners are developing a scalable model that can be rolled out nationally and, over time, become an integrated part of vocational schools' educational and student wellbeing initiatives.

Tech-Tur artists in 2026

• Luca Stereo (Weeks 16 and 38)

• Røverdatter (Week 23)

• Laura Vejlby (Week 49)

Interested in learning more about Tech-Tur?

For more information about the project, please contact ROSAs Project Manager, Anders Ovesen, at ovesen@rosa.org or +45 22 13 84 44.