The crafts can be divided into:

• Traditional crafts – example: clog-maker, rope maker, basket maker, broom maker or goose catcher. Since industrialization, these crafts virtually extinct. Often they only practiced as a demonstration for a museum audience, eg in Dutch Open Air Museum in Arnhem.
• Contemporary crafts – example: carpenter, bricklayer, blacksmith, baker, butcher.

In the time of the guilds was a craft learned in practice. The student who mastered the basic skills, was named companion, after passing the test was the master craftsman master. In the 19th century in the Netherlands founded the first vocational schools. This type of education is now part of VMBO.