Success and personal satisfaction is very much connected with a good education, followed by a well respected professional activity. Mostly, if not always, this is linked with high academic qualifications. However, the fact remains that not all college age students can study and meet the requirements for a Bachelors, a Masters or a PhD Degree. The percentage varies from country to country. The result is that we have, on one hand, highly qualified specialists and on the other hand, a large group of unskilled laborers in our work force. Some may receive training in a specific company and some may even have the chance to obtain a degree from a vocational training center, but others are left without any training at all. In Switzerland, approximately 60 percent of young people choose the apprenticeship route, “learning for jobs”. This is a vocational and professional education and training system (VET/PET). There is a distinction between VET programs, which take place at upper-secondary level, and PET programs, which take place at a tertiary, B level. VET students spend some of their time in a vocational school and the rest of their time under an apprenticeship at a host company. Most attend industry courses at an industry training center to develop complementary practical skills relating to the occupation at hand. The Professional Education and Training (PET) include both tertiary B degree programs in Swiss professional colleges and two national professional examinations: the Federal PET Diploma and the Advance Federal PET Diploma Examination. VET programs are what Switzerland refers to as a dual-track approach to learning. It combines part-time studies at a vocational school and part-time apprenticeship at a host company. The balance of the apprenticeship-based and the school-based components varies (one to two days of school and three to four days of work). In international comparison, Switzerland stands out in terms of the share of VET at upper secondary level and the number of apprenticeship as a percentage of those aged 15-64; other countries offer much less practical vocational training. (Source: OECD April 1009: Learning for Jobs OECD Reviews of Vocational Education and Training Switzerland). Over 300 professional occupations are offered to choose from. Currently, the most popular professions are administrative, sales or medical assistants, chefs and electricians. VET programs can take between two and four years and lead to a Federal VET Diploma (full 3- or 4-year program) or a Federal VET Certificate (less demanding 2-year program). Roughly one third of the companies in Switzerland engage in apprenticeship training. The propensity of a company to offer training increases in direct proportion to company size. Surveys have shown that for two-thirds of those companies, training entails net benefits because of the productive output apprentices make during their apprenticeship. Switzerland's VET/PET system is strongly employer-driven, offering paid apprenticeship opportunities. The involvement of professional organizations in the process is stipulated in law. Employers have responsibility for determining the content of both VET and national examinations. The employers also have the exclusive right to initiate the design of new ordinances, or update existing ones and prepare training plans. Th apprenticeship system is “market-driven” in the sense that students, in order to start their apprenticeship, need to first find a place in a company and sign a contract. A place in a vocational school is then automatic. In this way, student choice is balanced by employer's need. Students are more likely to find a job in their field of training upon finishing their apprenticeship than in an exclusively school-based system. The Federal Vocational Baccalaureate is an optional general education qualification available to VET students wishing to enroll in one of the 60 Swiss university of applied sciences or (if they take a University Aptitude Test) a Swiss cantonal university, federal institute of technology or university of teacher education, thus joining the academic path. Sadly, in international comparisons these professional certificates and diplomas are not as widely recognized and are largely unknown abroad. Whereas those in Switzerland with higher professional credentials in education do not have to fear competition. They not only convey knowledge but also skills, argues Michèle Rosenheck, US-born professor for strategic corporate leadership in Switzerland in an essay, stating that “Swiss Quality is not only based on top performance of academic elite but just as much on highly qualified practitioners”. Compiled by Fouzia Khan
