1. Policy framework The Ministers of Education and Science of the EU countries at their meeting at Lisbon in 2000 have expressed their ambition to transform the European Union into one of the most competing knowledge economies of the world. The knowledge society demands more people with higher education or training. One of the conditions to realize this ambition is to raise the education and training level of the population. The current route to higher education goes via general education. Through this route it is impossible to realise the upgrading. This route has reached its limits. The other possibility is through the route of vocational education and training. This route though is subject to some obstacles such as a rather big amount of students that leave education without a certificate, especially at the bottom of the VET-system. At the transition of secondary vocational education to higher vocational education there is for example the problem of not recognition of qualifications. Moreover it is supposed that there is a reserve of talent in secondary vocational education. In the Vocation Letter of the Dutch minister of Education and Science (July 2001) the vocational route (pre-vocational, secondary and higher vocational education) is defined as the (second) royal route to higher education. In recent policy notes a cultural change into the direction of the student's perspective has taken place instead of the institutional perspective as was the case in recent periods. The guiding principle is that the career of the student is central, that education and training pathways should be made to measure in behalf of the career and that there should be a coherent vocation directed pedagogic and didactic approach. A central condition is reinforcement of the cooperation between schools in the vocational field. In order to realise the strengthening of the vocational route the central government has offered an extra policy impulse to vocational schools (pre-vocational, secondary and higher vocational schools) and national bodies. CINOP Policy Research and Consultancy monitors the extra incentives for secondary and higher vocational schools and national bodies. The monitor is called the Impulse monitor. At the ECER Lisbon we presented first results of the monitor. At ECER Hamburg we will present results of the second measurement. 2. Research questions By means of monitoring the following questions will be answered: 1. for which themes are the extra financial incentives used? In which stage of development are the activities? Are activities carried out institution wide or are they located at certain trainings? 2. are activities carried out in a planned way, are they delayed and what are the reasons for the delay? 3. what is the nature and size of the (institutionalised) cooperation networks at regional/local level directed at the reinforcement of the vocational route? Do the cooperation networks contribute to the realisation of the actions? 4. is there any progress in realising the aims in comparison with the first data collection? 3. Methods of data collection The data have been collected as follows: 1. at (80) secondary vocational schools and (20) national bodies - written data collection through three questionnaires: one directed at aims, intentions and actual situation, one at tracing half-term modifications and one at assessing results - short interview by phone: directed at answering the question why no quantitative aims could be formulated 2. at (60) institutions for higher vocational education - interviews by telephone with institution members responsible for the reinforcement of the vocational route - 3 case studies of good practices 4. Results and conclusions Over 60 percent of the financial means is used for the transition from prevocational education to secondary vocational education, a quarter for connections within secondary vocational education and over 10 percent for the transition from secondary vocational education to higher vocational education. If we look at themes, according schools more than 30 percent of the financial means is used for correspondence in a programmatic way and again 30 percent for a coherent vocation directed pedagogic and didactic approach and about 20 percent for counselling of students in transition. Strengthening the relation with industry is still in its infancy. Nearly all schools invest in the themes with financial resources of their own. In general the activities are now in the stage of design or development and mostly limited to certain trainings within the institutions, although the amount of trainings is growing. In higher vocational education only trainings in the first year participate. In comparison with the first measurement there is some progress. The Impulse incentives stimulate the strengthening of the cohesion within the vocational route. Until now most of the initiatives are taken at the level of the management and the staff. Teachers are the central actors in innovation. There is still a long way to go to have a full participation of teachers. Cooperation is one of the central prerequisites for more cohesion within vocational education. All schools participate in cooperation networks for the reinforcement of the vocational route.