LOB required in the new curriculum — what does this mean for your school?

Career orientation and guidance (LOB) is gaining a stronger position in the renewed curriculum for secondary education. The Ministry of OCW has commissioned SLO to strengthen LOB across subjects. The result: all new examination programmes for the upper years of VMBO, HAVO and VWO will include a final attainment target on orientation towards study and profession. LOB is therefore no longer solely the responsibility of the careers counsellor or mentor, but a shared assignment for the entire school team. In this article we outline what is changing, what the timeline looks like, and how your school can concretely implement a continuous LOB learning pathway.

What exactly is changing?

In the current situation, LOB is an assignment for the school — and that remains the case. What is new is that LOB is now being embedded within subjects. All renewed examination programmes include a final attainment target (referred to in the draft phase as 'Orientation towards study and profession') that makes subject teachers co-owners of LOB. Students not only acquire subject knowledge, but learn to connect that knowledge to their interests, talents, values and future possibilities.

Important to note: subject teachers do not become "study choice ambassadors". They are the experts who connect their subject to the world outside school, helping students discover something about themselves. SLO uses the image of a pizza for this: personal development is the base, the subjects are the toppings, and LOB is the sauce that brings everything together.

The timeline: 2026-2027 is the preparation year

• 1 September 2026 — 53 renewed examination programmes for the upper years of secondary education are definitively delivered to OCW. On 6 October 2026, 47 draft programmes follow for physical education & sport, arts & culture, and people & society.
• School year 2026-2027 — preparation year. OCW has written to all secondary schools urging them to begin developing a school-specific curriculum aligned with the new frameworks. A starter webinar and OCW Dichtbij conferences will take place in autumn 2026.
• 2027-2028 — introduction of the first new examination programmes (mathematics VMBO).
• 2029-2030 — a large number of programmes come into effect: students from year 3 (VMBO) and year 4 (HAVO/VWO) onwards will receive education based on the renewed programmes. Later tranches follow in 2030-2031 and 2031-2032.
• Core objectives — the new core objectives for Dutch and numeracy/mathematics have been enshrined in law since August 2026; the remaining core objectives will follow in phases in 2027 and 2029. This creates space for continuous learning pathways from the lower to the upper years.

In short: formal implementation is still some way off, but preparation starts now. Schools that get their LOB vision, learning pathway and accountability in order this school year will not be under time pressure later on.

What does this require of your school?

1. A shared LOB vision. Who is responsible for what: careers counsellor, mentor, subject teacher, school leadership? The Kwaliteitskader LOB from the Expertisepunt LOB provides a 5-step plan for this.
2. A continuous learning pathway. Not one project week in year 3, but a structured progression from the lower years to the examination year in which students work step by step on their career competencies.
3. LOB in every subject. Subject teachers need concrete, small assignments that connect their subject content to careers, courses of study, and students' own interests — without the subject becoming a "careers lesson."
4. Recording and reflecting. Experiences, conversations, and choices must be recorded in a career portfolio so that students can make meaning of them.
5. Monitoring and accountability. School leadership and guidance counselors want to be able to see whether the learning pathway is being followed — per class, per year group — and to demonstrate this to inspectors and the school board.

How Findmino delivers the continuous LOB learning pathway

Findmino is built around exactly these five points. A brief mapping between the requirements of the new curriculum and what the tool does:

• Continuous learning pathway per year group or phase — a fixed sequence of assignments from lower secondary through to the exam year (VMBO, HAVO, VWO, MBO, SO/PrO), with progress tracked per student and per class.
• LOB in Your Subject — ready-made assignments per subject area that allow every subject teacher to fulfill the new learning objective without extra preparation time. Exactly the "glue" that connects the subjects.
• Career portfolio & portfolio — reflections, Swipe Quiz results (interests, skills, values), internship logbook, and LOB competencies all in one portfolio, downloadable as a PDF.
• Coordinator dashboard & reporting — real-time progress per class, identification of students falling behind, and exportable reports for accountability to school leadership, the board, and inspectors.
• Professional development — online courses for mentors, guidance counselors, and subject teachers, plus teaching materials with school branding.

Logged-in coordinators will find in their dashboard an accountability overview that explicitly links the Findmino modules to the new learning objective, the continuous learning pathway, and the five steps of the LOB Quality Framework.

Starting now costs nothing

With the free Basic plan, you can start today with one class (up to 30 students) — no payment required, no implementation process needed. Want the complete learning pathway, LOB in Your Subject, analytics, and the Mino AI coach for the whole school? Then check out the plan comparison.

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Sources

• Expertisepunt LOB — LOB gets a stronger place in the revised curriculum (10 September 2026)
• SLO — Revision of core objectives and examination programmes (planning and current status, September 2026)
• SLO — Pizza and perspective: LOB gets a place in the curriculum (March 2026)
• Expertisepunt LOB — LOB Quality Framework