Areas of Tension in Vocational Education and Training in Switzerland and Other Countries – Developments, Challenges and Potential. OBS SFUVET Trend Report 5

National systems of vocational education and training (VET) must continuously adapt to technological, economic and social change to ensure that young people acquire the knowledge and skills needed to become active members of society and the labour force. This trend report examines how the Swiss VET system has evolved in recent years, taking a clearly different direction from that of other European countries. It is therefore important to understand what benefits this counter-current choice brings and what challenges Switzerland will have to face in the future.• Changes in the education system result from collective negotiations and compromises between the various stakeholders. A key consideration here is striking the right balance between VET and general education. For one thing, there is the matter of managing enrolment to the two different pathways: how many young people should enter VET, how many should pursue general education? At the same time, it is important to find the right proportions of workplace training and classroom instruction in VET programmes. • In many European countries, the proportion of young people enrolling in general education has risen in recent years and fallen in vocational education and training. In addition, the boundaries between general and vocational education are becoming increasingly blurred. Only Switzerland has thus far largely escaped this trend. It currently has the highest proportion of young people enrolled in dual VET at upper-secondary level. • Long considered a prime example of a country with a strong dual VET system, Germanyʼs education system has seen a clear shift in favour of general education in recent years. A comparison with Germany suggests that Switzerlandʼs dual VET system has remained solid because it has been governed in a more targeted fashion. The small size of the country, the firm commitment to consensus and the robust collaborative partnership between the Confederation, the cantons and professional organisations – with extensive involvement of companies – have all contributed to this. • Although it can be said that the Swiss education system as a whole places great emphasis on VET, cantonal education systems have developed in a non-uniform fashion since the 1970s. While the proportion of holders of vocational qualifications awarded from dual VET programmes has increased in many German-speaking cantons, the French- and Italian-speaking cantons have given greater importance to general education and s