Posted on 11/15/2018 4:53:16 AM PST by SJackson
In past years, this unique education system has attracted a great deal of high-level attention.
Has anyone ever wondered how come Switzerland regularly features at the top of world ranking in competitiveness and innovation?
How come unemployment, especially youth unemployment, is among the world’s lowest? How come Swiss salaries and GDP per capita are highest among industrialized nations? Don’t look further. The magic formula has a name: apprenticeship or, to use a more modern label, VET: Vocational Education Training.
People look with amazement when one tells them that seven out of 10 Swiss young people do not go to high school. That they leave school at age 15 or 16 to join a company as an apprentice. After three or four years spending 80% of their time on the job and 20% at specialized schools, they graduate in their profession, be it commercial employee, health worker, or IT technician. With the federal certificate they receive, usually when they become 19 or 20 years old, they can easily find a job and are immediately operational.
But they do not need to quit any education ambition then. After they have completed this first degree, around 15% of them choose to continue their studies. Eventually, they can join a university and graduate like any other young person who went through the traditional high school–to-university track. The difference is that the university graduate who went through a VET program will master both the practical aspects of the job, and the more theoretical one taught at university. Such profiles are in high demand on the job market.
Let me illustrate the system by providing the example of a young relative of mine. At 15, he left compulsory school to join a machine factory as an apprentice. Three years later, he graduated as a mechanic. At 18, he entered a technical high school for a one-year baccalaureate bridging program that allowed him to enter a university, where he became within two years an engineer. At 21, his first job was a representative of the machine company where he started his professional path for the US, based in Chicago. Meaning, that whenever there was a problem with one of the company’s products, he would be dispatched in Detroit or San Diego to fix the problem. Today, he is 27 and he owns a small-and-medium-sized enterprise of more than 50 employees, producing spare parts for all sorts of companies, including in the automotive, medical and space industries.
In past years, this unique education system has attracted a great deal of high-level attention. Many foreign officials, including former French president François Hollande, visited companies training apprentices. It has also become an export hit of the Swiss soft power. For instance, in 2015, a cooperation agreement has been signed between the United States and Switzerland to develop a VET system in the US. Also, a cooperation is developing with Israel.
Obviously, for the system to work, both the companies and the young people must see an interest in it. And they do. Almost 40% of Swiss companies train apprentices, because they see benefits in terms of quality of their workers, but also in financial terms and, last but not least, companies with apprentices prove to be more innovative and competitive. For the apprentices, you get some handsome pocket money at a young age, but also you can count that you will have a decently paid job after graduating. And the sky is the limit for your future professional development.
When I explain the merits of VET to an Israeli public, I am often told this cannot work here. Parents would find it degrading for their children. This attitude is deeply wrong. Introducing VET Swiss-style in Israel would help address some of the serious shortages of skilled workers that the country faces while providing far-reaching opportunities to all.
The author Ambassador of Switzerland to Israel.
placemarker
I wish the US would embrace this stuff.
College is important for the medical field, and engineering, and perhaps some other areas. But most people would be happiest doing basic work, keeping the world running. And the folks who end up in cubicles (like me) can usually learn the job while doing the job. Most work today isn’t rocket science.
A lot of kids graduate from college with $100,000 worth of debt and a have careers pouring coffee or acting as a glorified file clerk in little gray cube. Vocational education would be a better path.
Agree. Or at least a more employment focused culture in academia. Despite the fact that the instructors have jobs.
I also liked the concept of proceeding to college after vocational training and work. Like going to college after military service. I’ve never seen a statistic, but I suspect a breakdown of majors of veterans vs those entering college after high school might be very different.
I agree 100%.
Attitudes are slowly changing. We know a lot of people in the homeschooling community. It’s amazing how many graduates are going into the trades rather than traditional college.
One of my four kids did the traditional college route to his bachelors. Two are slowly completing it online and paying as they go.
Number four got his CDL and is a truck driver.
The one with the bachelors is an aerospace engineer. His debt is manageable both because he borrowed very little and he has an excellent income and lives frugally.
His part time college job, in his field even had educational reimbursement and paid enough to cover his last year of school.
I truly believe that kids, especially young men need to seriously look at the skilled trades. I work for a building material manufacturer and virtually every meeting I go to with customers includes discussion on the labor shortage. Qualified plumbers, framers, HVAC tech and welders should be able to write their own ticket.
The USA is one of the worst countries in the developed world to be young, not well connected, and just starting out. This is a nation of cutthroats. It wasn't always like this.
Right after classes started (at night, BTW), he got an apprenticeship with a local company making $15 an hour.
He recently graduated from the diesel mechanic program and got a raise to $30 an hour.
Because his employer has a big backlog, he is working every Saturday for time and a half plus an extra hour a day during the week.
He's going to make over $80 grand this year and he is only 19 going on 20 years old.
BTW, he just bought a nice home with a workshop and garage building behind it. He is starting to buy diesel pickups that he can repair and sell in his spare time. His employer encourages it and let's him buy the parts he needs from company vendors at their prices.
My parents always taught me that anyone who earns an honest living is worthy of your respect.
Somehow along the way we as a society lost that, causing people who take jobs in the trades to feel like second-class citizens. They shouldn’t. My carpentry skills are so bad I can only look at them with awe.
Yes, Switzerland has apprenticeships. We used to have them, but then idiotic laws came into play, and prevented anyone from teaching a minor on the job (”child labor laws”) and kept them locked up in a boring sissy room all day (”public school”).
Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) has been promoting this in the USA for years! He has a jobs program for it. Look him up!
similar to what was informally in place here until the 60’s.
Goals 2000 and Clinton took training out of the hands of Voc.
Goal 2000 plan was to overtake all education and certifications.
Clinton gave them the means by holding out monies to voc programs which became “colleges”.
How come? Sigh.
Yeah, that’s the ticket to Switzerland’s success.
Sure it is.
I remember back in the 60s when I was in high school we had a whole wing dedicated to vocational training. It’s since completely shut down. Now it’s suddenly a big new idea?
I have been told that the US has tried to do this in the past. However the adversarial relationship between US unions & US companies makes it impossible. Neither side will cooperate enough to make it work.
“Parents would find it degrading...”
That illustrates the problem here too, after years of having the mantra “College for all” shoved down our throats - what has that accomplished other than enrich colleges and real estate developers who can’t even keep up with student housing demands for luxury apartments, thanks to student loans. What a racket. Then some kids with 6-figure debt end up spending their first 2 college years in remedial classes.
I wish the US would embrace this stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocational_education_in_the_United_States
You do realize that unions are almost dead? Only 7% of the private sector is unionized.
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