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1.1 VET in a small company

Training in small and medium-sized companies corresponds most closely with the conventional image of an apprenticeship, according to which young people work in the host company for four days and attend vocational school for one day a week.

1.1.1 Definition

In Switzerland, an apprenticeship is officially called “VET” (berufliche Grundbildung) and the school “vocational school” (Berufsfachschule).[1] School attendance can be for up to two days per week. Several times during the VET programme the learners go for several days or weeks to a “branch course” (überbetrieblicher Kurs, üK) in a training centre of the respective professional organisation (Organisation der Arbeitswelt, OdA), which is usually a regional or national trade association (cf. Chapter 5.5.2, p. 248).

The apprenticeship trainer, or VET trainer (Berufsbildner/in, traditionally “Lehrmeister/in”), in a small company is usually the owner, in larger companies it is often an experienced employee who is entrusted with the training.

The training itself is carried out as part of everyday life at the company, in the joint work on orders which come in or services. So it is often time pressure rather than didactic considerations which determines the work of the learners. This is why attendance of branch courses is today a fixed component of the VET programme in most occupations. In the branch course, it is possible to provide an introduction to new vocational tasks without being disturbed by taking subject-specific didactic principles into consideration. Thus, more difficult processes can be practised and perfected (cf. the portrait of Nicole Renggli, p. 18, and Chapter 5.5, excursus “Branch courses”, p. 250).

In this form of VET, the apprenticeship trainers are not only responsible for the training, they have generally also made the selection, are apprenticeship contract partners and coach their learners by helping them deal with professional and sometimes also personal crises.

1.1.2 Development

Apprenticeships have existed in some way or other since ancient times (Kolb, 2007). In the Middle Ages and up to the 19th century, training over several years in a company was widespread in trades which were organised in guilds, especially in towns. To become a journeyman, an apprenticeship period had to be completed first. Only then, usually after a journey to acquire additional knowledge and gain more world experience, was it possible to strive for mastery of a trade. School education in addition to the training did not develop until later; in Switzerland, it became compulsory in the field of trade, industrial, commercial and housekeeping education and training in 1933.

Today, this form of VET is common not only in traditional crafts but also in small and medium-sized businesses from many different professional branches.

The roughly 77,000 young people who took up a VET programme in 2015 were divided as follows:

•70,000 began a combined school/work-based VET programme (company-based VET), of which

•50,000 were in a company with fewer than 50 employees and

•20,000 were in a medium-sized or large company or a cooperative training association (Ausbildungsverbund) (cf. Chapter 1.2 and 1.3, pp. 20 and 26);

•7,000 attended a school-based VET programme (cf. Chapter 1.4 and Chapter 1.5, pp. 32 and 38) (SERI, 2014a, p. 12; Müller & Schweri, 2012, p. 39).

This shows that a VET programme in a small company is still by far the most common form of VET in Switzerland.

1.1.3 Example

Meat Specialist

As an example of a VET programme in a small company we will take a closer look at the training as a butcher. Since 2007, this apprenticeship occupation has no longer been referred to as “Metzger/in” (“Butcher”) but is now called “Fleischfachmann//Fleischfachfrau EFZ” (“Meat Specialist, Federal VET Diploma”) which can be completed in three areas of specialisation: meat production, meat processing and meat refinement.

Related training programmes are the two-year VET course to become a Meat Specialist Assistant, Federal Certificate of Vocational Education and Training or Federal VET Certificate (Fleischfachassistent/in EBA = eidgenössisches Berufsattest) and the three-year programme to become a Retail Specialist, Federal VET Diploma (Detailhandelsfachfrau/Detailhandelsfachmann EFZ).

The branch courses in this occupation comprise only two days per apprenticeship year, school one day a week (40 days or 360 lessons per year). Very good learners can attend general education courses in preparation for the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate Examination on a second day (cf. the portrait of Lukas Signer, p. 48).

To encourage reflection about their own learning and also as a means of assuring the quality of the training, the learners – like in nearly all apprenticeship occupations – have to keep a “training logbook” (Lerndokumentation), developed by the Ausbildungszentrum für die Schweizer Fleischwirtschaft ABZ (Training Centre for the Swiss Meat Industry, www.abzspiez.ch) in Spiez which, on behalf of the trade association, the Schweizer Fleisch-Fachverband SFF (Swiss Meat Association), promotes initial and continuing training in many different ways.

The training teaches specialist competences (meat production and animal welfare, processing, applied mathematics, hygiene, occupational safety, etc.) and – like all modern VET programmes – also promotes methodological, social and personal competences which are set out in detail in the “training plan” (Bildungsplan).

Very good learners can attend a special support course which is also offered at the training centre in Spiez. Candidates for national and international competitions are selected from the participants.

A lot of importance is attached to continuing education and training: Figure 1-1 shows the diversity and scope of the continuing education and training programme in this very traditional yet modern profession.

Figure 1-1: VET and CET in the meat industry. Diagram by the authors, based on documents by ABZ Spiez

1.1.4 Several variants

Meat specialists are not only trained in commercially oriented small businesses but also in industrial meat processing firms. In some occupational fields, the apprenticeship occupations differ depending on the company form, however. For the production of baked goods, for example, training is conducted in SMEs for Baker-Pâtissier-Confectioner, Federal VET Diploma (Bäcker-Konditor-Confiseur/in EFZ), while in large bakeries Food Processing Technicians, Federal VET Diploma (Lebensmitteltechnologen/Lebensmitteltechnologinnen EFZ) with a specialisation in baked goods are trained.

In some occupations and/or regions, vocational school classes are not distributed over 40 weeks per year but are organised in blocks, for example in the case of millers: only 20 learners begin this training programme each year, their vocational school teaching is provided in the Berufsbildungszentrum Uzwil (Uzwil Vocational Training Centre) because the company Bühler AG, the leading international producer of milling machines, runs a training centre in Uzwil. This allows for synergies but means that many learners have to travel a long way. This is why teaching is done in block courses lasting two to three weeks. During this period, some learners are accommodated at the learning location in a boarding home or with host families.

In agriculture, VET was divided into two parts for a long time: in the first and second year of apprenticeship, the young people were mainly given practical training and attended vocational school for only 240 lessons per year. In the third apprenticeship year, they were taught more theoretical aspects in the form of agricultural winter schools or all-year schools. When the training became subject to the Federal Vocational and Professional Education and Training Act (Berufsbildungsgesetz) (cf. Chapter 2.4.3, p. 131), it was brought into line with apprenticeships in other fields. Since 2008, it has been a three-year training programme with eight days of branch courses and 360 vocational school lessons in each of the first two years, taught in blocks or on a daily basis. In the third apprenticeship year, teaching comprises 880 lessons and is sometimes in block form. The host company is often changed once or twice during the VET programme.

Learners in occupations of the hotel, restaurant and catering branch who are trained in a health resort with seasonal business attend vocational school classes and branch courses in one of the five hotel schools of the trade association hotelleriesuisse, for example in the Regina hotel school in Interlaken. Teaching takes place twice per apprenticeship year in a five-week intercantonal school course each time. During the courses, the learners are accommodated in the hotel school.

Some businesses cannot or do not want to provide training in all qualifications which are envisaged or required for an apprenticeship occupation. They can join forces in “host company networks” (Lehrbetriebsverbünde). This is also the solution for very small businesses which do not have enough work for learners.

There are two different forms here:

•A host company which itself cannot provide the full range of work-based training finds a partner firm where the learners can learn and work for several weeks or months (“supplementary training” (Ergänzungsausbildung), cf. Fig. 1-2, p. 20).

•A number of firms each focus on a particular aspect of the VET programme, thus providing a joint training programme. One company is designated as the main company (Leitbetrieb) in each case. Its responsibilities include concluding the apprenticeship contract with the learner and it also represents the host company network externally (cf. Fig. 1-3, p. 20).