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EXCURSUS: Trade schools, training centres and learning centres

If the production of goods or services in a company serves the purpose of training and qualifying personnel, this is referred to as “learning off the job”. Locations which have workshops, training laboratories, training offices, simulators or other facilities enable trainees to understand the work process which has to be learned. Such places can be specific education and training institutions or departments in companies and schools. Depending on the branch of trade and the provider, they are referred to as training centres (Ausbildungszentren) or trade schools, i.e. full-time vocational schools, including work-based training and classroom instruction (Lehrwerkstätten).

The following classification is common:

Public trade schools are independent training facilities in which VET is taught as an alternative to company-based VET (cf. previous chapter).

Training centres are trade schools or other learning centres which are provided by professional organisations and are used to carry out “branch courses” (cf. Chapter 5.5, Excursus “Branch courses”, p. 250). In the Vocational and Professional Education and Training Act (VPETA, 2002, Art.16), there is reference to “third-party training centres” (dritte Lernorte). This infrastructure is often also used for continuing education and training and professional education. Sometimes even research and development are carried out here, expert assessments are compiled and new procedures tested. The providers then rightly speak of competence centres for the respective branch of industry.

Company-based trade schools (full-time vocational schools) are learning centres which are provided by large industrial enterprises or cooperative training associations and in which the learners are prepared for their production tasks by teaching them basic skills. If learning centres are incorporated physically in production, they are referred to as “learning islands” (Lerninseln). Often, company-based trade schools also train the staff of the company’s clients. If there is free capacity, they sometimes take on training tasks for learners of other host companies or carry out branch courses on behalf of associations and cantons.

School workshops are rooms in professional schools, vocational schools and other education and training institutions providing vocational and professional education and training with an infrastructure which enables demonstrations and experiments to be carried out.

1.6 Hybrid forms of VET

If someone acquires at the same time a qualification for an occupation and for higher education studies or obtains the two qualifications one right after the other, they receive a “double” or “hybrid” qualification. Such “hybrid” qualifications call for a more permeable education system, however.

1.6.1 Permeability as a requirement of hybrid qualifications

In most countries, there is a sharp divide between VET and the general education system. Education at an upper-secondary level baccalaureate school is seen as a school of the privileged classes while VET is sometimes considered as a second choice. The Swiss education system has also been criticised for the fact that it makes young people decide on an education pathway at a very young age and, therefore, reinforces social differences and a lack of opportunities for social advancement.[3]

The tradition of such a two-tier education system is often questioned and weakened by various measures and programmes. Several reform efforts have, therefore, aimed to expand general education within VET and to strengthen the orientation towards academic studies. For VET, it is essential that, if possible without curtailments regarding professional qualifications, it also ensures vertical permeability to tertiary education.

Hybrid forms have gained in significance in many countries, for example Austria, which, as well as a “professional maturity certificate” (equivalent to the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate) and subject-restricted general higher education entrance qualification, also knows the “Apprenticeship with higher education entrance qualification” (Lehre mit Matura) scheme, which combines VET with a university entrance qualification (cf. Deissinger et al., 2013; Graf, 2013).

Overall permeability in the education system is playing an increasingly important role. This means the demand for hybrid forms of VET programmes is growing. This corresponds with the spirit of the times to leave options open and prevent dead ends. Hybrid forms also exist in the area of transitional options (cf. Chapter 4.4.2, p. 195).

1.6.2 Example[4]

Federal Vocational Baccalaureate

The introduction of the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate (FVB) is probably one of the most significant reforms in the education sector in Switzerland in the last 20 years. On the one hand, it aimed to make VET more attractive and, on the other hand, it aimed to increase participation at the tertiary A (academic) level of education (Gonon, 2013).

From upper-secondary level baccalaureate school to VPET

There is a passage from VPET to higher education. The direction from general education to VPET is also possible. Thanks to specific programmes, upper-secondary level baccalaureate school graduates have the opportunity, for example in a bank, to be taught specific knowledge and practical experience so they can obtain a professional position which is usually only available to learners who have completed a VET programme. The course “Bank Entry for Upper-Secondary School Graduates” (Bankeinstieg für Mittelschulabsolventen, BEM) certified by the Schweizerische Bankiervereinigung (Swiss Bankers Association) teaches practical and specialist knowledge in a period of between one and a half and two years, depending on the bank. In the area of electrical engineering/electronics, information technology, mechanical engineering/microtechnology and telecommunications, programmes have been set up under the direction of the entrepreneurs’ association Swissmem, which offer holders of the upper-secondary level baccalaureate a shortened two-year apprenticeship with practical basic training, in-company practice and occupation-related theory. In this way, the learners obtain the Federal VET Diploma and the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate at the same time.⁴

In the 1990s, as the universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen) were being established and in view of the increasing demand for academic graduates or people with a tertiary education, the former vocational upper-secondary school with an extended general education syllabus (Berufsmittelschule) was expanded to prepare for the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate (FVB). The aim was to enable access to a university of applied sciences without taking an exam.

The Federal Vocational Baccalaureate or FVB (Berufsmaturität, BM) is defined as an extended and in-depth general education as a complement to VET (cf. portrait of Lukas Signer, p. 48). A Federal VET Diploma is an integral part of the FVB qualification. The Federal Vocational Baccalaureate is, therefore, awarded to candidates who have a Federal VET Diploma and have successfully completed the supplementary general education courses for the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate Examination.

The original concept envisaged above all preparatory courses for the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate alongside an apprenticeship: in additional lessons to the regular VET programme more time was to be spent on general education. In the meantime, a second form has been increasing in significance: full-time Federal Vocational Baccalaureate preparatory courses (with a part-time variant) are attended after completion of a VET programme. This consecutive form, in contrast to the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate during an apprenticeship or FVB 1 (BM 1), is called FVB 2 (BM 2) (cf. Fig. 1-6).

The Federal Vocational Baccalaureate was originally subdivided into six orientations: Engineering; Commerce; Handicraft; Art; Natural Sciences; Health and Social Care. According to the new Federal Ordinance on Baccalaureates (Berufsmaturitätsverordnung) from 2009, for all graduates the FVB comprises four areas which are specified in the core syllabus from 2013: a fundamental area, an area of focus, a supplementary area and interdisciplinary work.

Figure 1-6: Development of the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate during an apprenticeship (FVB 1) and the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate after a VET programme (FVB 2). Source: FSO (2011b); representation and additions by the authors

There are around 200 schools which offer FVB 1 or FVB 2: vocational schools, commercial schools, trade schools and individual private schools.

Since 2005 there have also been preparatory courses for the University Aptitude Test (UAT) for enrolment in a Swiss cantonal university, a federal institute of technology (FIT) or a university of teacher education (UTE). In 2015, a total of 773 Federal Vocational Baccalaureate holders used this transition from the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate to academic studies at a university (Federal Statistical Office; FSO, 2016b).

In 2015, a total of 14,000 Federal Vocational Baccalaureates (FVB) were issued. 11.7 per cent of all learners obtained their FVB qualification parallel to the Federal VET Diploma (FVB 1), another 10.3 per cent obtained their FVB after completion of a VET programme (FVB 2) (FSO 2016b). Two years after completion of an FVB, only 50 per cent of FVB holders have enrolled at a university of applied sciences, however. The impressive rise of the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate in a short period of time and its prominent role alongside the general education baccalaureate conflicts with a clearly lower transition rate than was expected. The favourable labour market situation possibly plays a role in the fact that many Federal Vocational Baccalaureate holders do not opt to study at a university of applied sciences or delay the decision until later (Gonon, 2013, p. 129).