Tracking the career trajectories of VET graduates Vocational education and training (VET) programmes in Switzerland typically include both occupation-specific and general teaching, and the balance between the two has a significant influence on graduates’ later careers. We spoke to Professor Irene Kriesi about her research into how the nature of VET programmes affects career trajectories. The majority of
young people in Switzerland go into vocational education and training, through which they acquire the skills and knowledge that will help them enter the labour force. While there are different types of vocational education and training (VET), most young people go into so-called dual VET, which is company-based. “This means that they spend maybe 3-4 days in a training company, and 1-2 days in vocational school,” says Irene Kriesi, Professor at the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training (SFUVET). The nature of this training, and the balance between occupation-specific training and more general education in VET programmes, has a strong influence on young people’s later career trajectories, a topic of great interest to Professor Kriesi. “These young people have different labour market opportunities, depending on the type of programme they go through, as most jobs require a specific credential,” she explains. There are around 230 different VET programmes in the Swiss system, covering a wide variety of different occupations. Although all programmes focus strongly on occupation-specific skills, there is some degree of heterogeneity in the balance between general and occupation-specific teaching. While in some training programmes young people spend most of their time in the firm,
Digital literacy learning objectives in Swiss VET occupations.
and focus strongly on occupational-specific skills, others are different. “There are training programmes with more general education and less vocation-specific training. There are also differences on exams, which affects how training is organised, as well as differences in terms of the breadth of the programme,” explains Professor Kriesi. This has a major impact on young people’s career prospects, as Professor Kriesi says the Swiss training system and the labour market are closely linked. “The type of training young people do determines to quite a strong extent how they enter the labour market,” she continues.
Interactive skills learning objectives in Swiss VET occupations
research project based at SFUVET. The core database used in this research is the Swiss labour force survey, while Professor Kriesi and her colleagues are also using data from a number of other sources. “We intend to extend our analysis using the TREE (Transition from Education to Employment) data, which is a longtitudinal survey. We’re also working with unemployment data,” she outlines. Researchers are also using data from the Swiss job monitor, which holds a representative
Career trajectories An occupation-specific training programme may put young people in a good position to enter the labour market, but it may also affect their subsequent career trajectory and ability to move into a different job later on, a topic which Professor Kriesi is investigating in a
The Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training SFUVET is Switzerland’s expert organisation for vocational education and training.
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