By Clarissa Oon

Aged one to three, the 11 children were unusually quiet, absorbed in fashioning a 'snake' out of yellow and brown autumn leaves, wire and their imagination. Three teachers lent a hand occasionally.

'Yellow music' thumped away in the background - upbeat Australian aboriginal music that the teachers had chosen as a way of conveying the sunniness and unpredictability of the colour yellow to the children.

That playful scene in the backyard of a Copenhagen childcare centre was not all about play, however. The toddlers were actually attending a lesson, at which they were being introduced to the colour through yellow-themed games over the course of a week. It is a far cry from traditional sit-down lessons conducted with flash cards and riddled with monotonous recitations.

That scene at the Wizzard Hill infant- and childcare centre in the suburb of Helsinge reveals how preschool education is viewed in Denmark.

The country has done away with formal, structured curricula. Teachers there are quick to declare that they are not authority figures bent on cramming knowledge into tiny brains, but rather, adults trained to facilitate their young charges' first stabs at learning and socialising.

Indeed, Denmark's childcare centres form the starting point for a cradle-to- grave approach to developing human capital, say educationists and academics.

The Nordic nation is not the only proponent of lifelong learning. Many developed economies, including Singapore, recognise the importance of grooming a skilled and nimble workforce.

Yet, few spend anywhere near the 120 billion kroner (S$32 billion) or so that Denmark's welfare state ploughs into education and job-related training. And few achieve such effective results.

Welfare states rely on high taxes to provide free or heavily subsidised social services to residents, and Denmark has some of the highest taxes in the world.

A professional earning 26,000 kroner (S$6,920) a month could find himself paying the equivalent of S$2,600 a month in taxes, according to the Danish tax authority's website.

Denmark's value added tax on goods and services is a hefty 25 per cent, more than three times Singapore's 7 per cent goods and services tax.

But a large chunk of the tax collection goes into nurturing talented people with a unique cocktail of attributes - creativity, individuality and teamwork - who will set its economy and sociopolitical system apart from others.

This finely honed balance between the individual and the collective has reaped considerable payoffs, as evidenced by the latest World Economic Forum rankings released in October.

The survey shows Denmark has kept its position as the world's third most competitive economy. The United States is first and Singapore ranks fifth.

Comparisons between Denmark and Singapore are not all that far-fetched.

Both are small countries - Denmark has 5.5 million people against 4.8 million for Singapore. Both have predicated economic growth on a highly skilled workforce, and most Danes speak English fluently as a second language.

The key differences are Denmark's multi-party democracy, the much higher levels of social spending there, and its approach to learning, which respects passion, diversity and risk-taking.

Its education spending is more than three times that of Singapore's. Education, including university education, is free in Denmark, as is health care.

Stimulating curiosity and encouraging group work

IN RECENT years, several teams of Singapore government officials, policymakers and unionists have visited Denmark to study its labour and education policies.

What they would have found is that learning begins extremely early. At a very young age, children - some are just a year old - are sent to public childcare centres such as the one in Helsinge, because nearly all Danish mothers return to work after their one year of paid maternity leave.

Tending to these children are teachers such as Ms Inger-Lene Dueholm, or paeagogs as the Danes call them. Translated into English, the word is closer in meaning to 'caregiver' than 'teacher'.

Referring to the colour-themed play-cum-learning sessions, Ms Dueholm, 56, said: 'We've gone through different colours. This week, we want to give the kids different associations of 'yellow', to let them 'feel' the colour.'

In keeping with the theme, she and her colleagues were decked out in yellow. She was clad in a yellow top while her feet were shod in Crocs the colour of lemons.

'In many societies, kindergarten is a place where parents park the children while they go to work,' noted Mr Joergen Oerstrom Moeller, 64, a former Danish ambassador to Singapore and now a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

In Denmark, however, preschool is where the young are 'stimulated to learn', he stressed, adding that they are not merely fed words and numbers.

Ms Rita Valentin Christensen, 54, a childcare professional and mother of three, agreed: 'Children are pushed to always try things for themselves, but teachers will have a hand out to catch them.'

This breeds curiosity, self-reliance and boldness, which she believes explain Denmark's strength in innovation and research and development, as well as in niche areas such as craftsmanship and design.

What is unusual about the Danish system is that while it emphasises individuality, it also trains children to function in a group, said Copenhagen-based Singapore sociologist Ooi Can Seng.

'From a young age, Danes find out what they're good at - whether it's with their hands or with languages or numbers,' noted Associate Professor Ooi, 43, who has been teaching at the Copenhagen Business School for 11 years.

They are encouraged to pursue their passion. But at the same time, they also learn how to work in teams, right from the first year of Folkeskole (primary and lower-secondary school), by doing group projects.

Group work is second nature to the Danes, so much so that by the time they enter university, 'when I say, get yourselves organised in groups, the Danish students will do it in two minutes flat while the foreign students will sit there wondering what has hit them', Prof Ooi added.

Knowing how to work efficiently in a group does not mean that Danes do not have debates or disagreements. Far from it, observers say.

In Danish classrooms, 'you're expected to question authority, to always voice your reservations and opinions', said Singaporean Chris Ng, 28, who moved to Denmark four years ago to do a master's in business administration.

Nevertheless, the Danes are well able to compromise when the situation warrants it, say, in the workplace, where one must balance 'disagreements with practicalities such as deadlines'.

Mr Ng, who studied at Copenhagen Business School, is now with the Copenhagen office of Accenture, a multinational management consultancy.

'Flexicurity' for life

THE high degree of consensus has given birth to a successful and quintessentially Danish system that combines flexible hiring and firing for companies with employment security for workers.

The Danes call it 'flexicurity'.

Unlike companies in other welfare states, such as Germany or France, companies in Denmark face no restrictions in firing workers. Nor do they risk stand-offs with labour unions when they fire staff.

Laid-off workers receive unemployment benefits funded partly by worker contributions and mostly by the state - but they must first sign up for job-related training courses and job search services.

Last month, Singapore adopted a modified version of this scheme, announcing that jobless workers who go for training would receive allowances.

In Denmark, adult worker training occurs throughout a person's working life span, said Mr Villy Hovard Pedersen, the Education Ministry's director-general of adult vocational training.

The average Dane receives more than 900 hours of job-related training over 40 years of adult working life.

All this training, which is heavily subsidised by both the state and employers, has produced a skilled and adaptable labour force. Denmark's unemployment rate last year was just 3.7 per cent.

While the Danish economy is expected to contract in view of the current financial crisis, it remains one of the strongest in Europe, said Mr Moeller, an expert on economic and political issues relating to European integration. Its strength stems from the limited exposure of its banks to toxic US sub-prime assets, the surplus on the country's balance of payments and the sizeable budget surplus.

Carpenters and CEOS valued equally

HOW does Denmark's vocal multi-party democracy manage such a high degree of cohesion and stability?

It helps that the nation state is among the oldest in Europe. It was united by the Vikings into a single kingdom towards the end of the 10th century, and has stayed independent since.

As no single political party has held an absolute majority in Parliament since the beginning of the 20th century, major issues are settled through negotiation and compromise - whether between political parties, or between big business, government and the labour movement.

Job-related training for workers is another area of consensus as it is seen to benefit everyone. Companies rarely complain because they see it as an investment in their workers, explained Mr Pedersen.

They pay about 600 kroner per employee each year to a fund that is topped up by the state. The fund compensates employers for the loss of worker productivity while the staff are in training. The state also subsidises as much as 90 per cent of the training fees. Workers receive full wages during training.

Unionists appreciate such intensive skills upgrading because 'you need training at all times for job mobility and security', said Ms Ulla Funder, 61, a vice-president of a postal workers' union.

Recent surveys by universities and institutes in Britain and Sweden have found Danish people to be the happiest and most contented in the world. Yardsticks used in these studies include access to good education and health care, plus the freedom to choose how to live one's life.

Particularly striking is the egalitarian way in which careers are viewed, with no job choice being seen as more desirable than another. Nor is it seemly to brag of one's accomplishments or flaunt one's wealth.

In Copenhagen, the preferred form of transport for politicians and plumbers alike is the bicycle.

This anti-elitism culture has allowed a strong tradition of vocational and technical education to take root. It is in no way considered inferior to tertiary education, as it is in many other countries.

Such courses need to satisfy workplace needs, so students in vocational schools work and study at the same time. Carpentry students, for example, are employed concurrently in carpentry firms.

It is also common for young Danes to work for a year or two before starting university, even though tertiary education is free and the government gives undergraduates a monthly allowance.

Ms Christensen's second son, a 26-year-old medical student, worked for a year at a nursing home for the elderly before starting his medical studies.

The teacher and her diplomat husband are typical Danish parents in that they respect their children's life choices and do not try to influence them. The youngest of their three sons is a postman. Now 19, he completed high school a year ago and is in no rush to return to the paper chase.

'I get off work at five'

THE final piece in the puzzle of what makes the Danish economy special is the importance accorded to work-life balance.

The typical working week in Denmark is 37 hours long. Some professionals and business people put in more than that, but most employers respect family time.

Employees knock off work by 4.30pm or 5pm, so parents with young children can pick up their kids from the childcare centre before it closes for the day.

Such working hours - very abbreviated by the standards of Asian economies - do not translate into sloth.

Danes will proudly declare that they can make it out of the door by 5pm because they work hard and productively during office hours, taking only a half-hour lunch break.

This work culture means both parents can work and still have enough time for the family.

Nor does the work come at the expense of making babies.

Denmark has one of the highest female workforce participation rates in the world, as well as a high total fertility rate of 1.9. At a rate of 2.1, a population completely replaces itself, but few developed countries have been able to hit this level. Singapore's rate was 1.29 last year.

Denmark's family-friendly culture helps offset the brain drain of young, upwardly mobile professionals. There are no figures to quantify this outflow of workers, but many return home in their 30s and 40s to raise families, said Mr Pedersen of the Education Ministry.

Prof Ooi observed that many of his graduating students are put off by Denmark's high taxes - the top rate is 63 per cent - and hanker to work overseas.

'But they will tell you they want to come back, because they have an emotional attachment to society. This is not just an economic production house, it's home,' he added.

The 'home' factor becomes more attractive as one ages, said Mr Moeller, given how the Danish welfare state automatically takes care of you when you are too old and weak to take care of yourself.

He and his wife have lived in Singapore for nearly 10 years - but no prizes for guessing where they plan to live out their retirement years.

'It's a fantastic system,' he said of Denmark's social safety net. 'Very expensive, but fantastic.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on December 13, 2008.