The introductory 6-month semester details the aims of the secondary school period of the vocational education and training programmes offered by the college.
The programme caters to the 16 to 19-year-old bracket and is divided into years with a certain number of obligatory and optional subjects of both a general and a vocational nature.
All pupils that have received the relevant education and passed the prescribed examination(s) can continue in an upper secondary programme of more or less their own choice.
None of those oriented in special only[clarification needed] to the scientific, technical and communicative subjects, which in a more and more globalised Denmark began to matter a great deal.
The labour market was experiencing downturns due to great changes in the Danish business sector, where Denmark's role in the world was shifting from a productive industrial country (like China), to a more service-industrial country, with research and "production of knowledge" becoming the most vital markets.
As an experimental programme, the HTX was using the most modern method of teaching,[clarification needed] and a lot of interdisciplinary group- and project-work to imitate situations that students would encounter in the real world – something that wasn't being done a great deal in gymnasia.
As the experimental phase was being closed in 1988, the HTX programme was to become a fully integrated part of the Danish education system.
On 1 January 1991, the subjects were divided into A, B and C levels, which for that reason removed the last thing that kept the HTX programme from being a complete academically oriented upper secondary education equal to the gymnasium.
The HTX programme is based on technical and scientific subjects at the highest mandatory level offered in Denmark.
Furthermore, it is as well based on a wide range of optional subjects similar to those found in the Gymnasium or at the HHX programme.
The students choose at least three A-level, three B-level, and one C-level subjects to meet the requirements for a full HTX-exam diploma.
The biggest differences between the new students are in mathematics, where basic needs are taught (like solving equations and algebra).
Most of the schools offer at least 3 different lines of study, namely: In the last year of the programme, the students are obliged to choose one of three rather unusual "Area of technical specialization" at level A.
Teaching methods included develop the independence of the students and their ability to argue, generalise and make abstractions.
When attending to the HTX programme, one must expect that a great part of the work is done in groups, and that there will be a lot of interdisciplinary projects, too.
A student can normally only be registered for the examination if they have participated in the instruction, and have handed in required written work and had it approved by the teachers concerned.