In recent years, the VET systems in Germany and Switzerland have been characterised by a shortage of training places which has created a fierce competition for those places among candidates. Nowadays, in Switzerland, almost one out of three school-leaving VET applicants has to wait at least 1 year until he or she secures a suitable place of apprenticeship. Furthermore, the dropout rate in apprenticeships is quite high and challenges educational policy. About one in five apprenticeship contracts is terminated without the apprentice having achieved the aspired degree on the secondary level. Dropping out of vocational education puts youths at great risk of not gaining re-entry into upper secondary education and staying without a secondary level degree. A Swiss survey following circa 1,300 young persons 3 years after dropping out of apprenticeship training shows that three-quarters of the dropouts continued their education within these three years. Although the time around the drop out had been a strain for these young people, most of the 'education returners' are more satisfied with their new education than before dropping out. These findings suggest that dropping out of education is not bad per se and should not be avoided in every case. Dropping out can also provide an opportunity to solve problems concerning one's education, to improve one's educational situation and to realign. After having changed to another company, another educational level or another field, around two-thirds tend to finish their vocational education. Nonetheless, for one-third of youths dropping out of education represents the end of any education on the upper secondary level. The aim of this chapter is to follow the life courses of dropouts, to describe the educational situation they are in during the first 3 years after dropping out of their apprenticeship training and to discuss in what way dropping out may represent an opportunity for change.

Context: Vocational education and training (VET) plays a key role in reducing early leaving from education and training, and integrating youth at risk in upper secondary education. To ensure that more young people complete upper secondary education, the OECD suggests designing interventions that address the specific needs of youth at risk like changes in the standard duration, preparatory or personalised support measures. Based on a comparative analysis of such programmes tailored to the needs of youth at risk in Austria, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, the objective of this article is to identify different education and training models that these countries employ to include youth at risk in upper secondary education.Approach: The study is based on document analysis; the documents studied are public documents like law texts and white papers from the education authorities as well as research publications. The interventions proposed by the OECD to adapt training programmes to the specific needs of youth at risk were chosen as a basis for the comparative analysis. Further structural characteristics of the programmes complemented the analysis.Findings: The study found four different types of education and training models for youth at risk in Austria, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland: Shortened (Norway, Switzerland), prolonged (Austria), individualised (Austria, Norway and Sweden) and preparatory programmes (Sweden). Preparatory and prolonged programmes aim to help young people to achieve ordinary upper secondary qualifications through preparatory measures, more time or more support. Individualised or shortened programmes aim to adapt education and training programmes to young people's needs by reducing the programmes’ demands. In all four countries, youths have the opportunity to conclude their education with a certificate at a level lower than 'regular' upper secondary education.Conclusion: The four countries surveyed differ widely in terms of educational traditions and the position of VET at upper secondary level. Regarding the integration of disadvantaged youth into education and work, the differences concerning access to upper secondary education, the importance of VET at upper secondary level and the recognition of training programmes for youth at risk may be of particular relevance. Further research is needed to empirically investigate the effectiveness of the identified education and training models as a means of integrating youth at risk into upper secondary education.

No abstract

No abstract

Over the last 15 years, different countries have developed low-level vocational education and training (VET) programmes for young people who struggle to enter or complete education at upper secondary level. Switzerland introduced nationally standardised two-year initial VET programmes in 2005, Norway in 2016. Data of interviews with curriculum experts in Norway and Switzerland provided an empirical basis to examine the underlying intentions for offering these programmes and the respective criteria for defining the learning outcomes and the curricula. The reference frame in Norway for identifying appropriate learning outcomes and selecting learning goals are the national curricula of the respective four-year VET programmes. In Switzerland, the learning outcomes of two-year curricula are defined by lower-level occupational activities which are usually identified in analyses involving active workers and experts in the respective fields. Despite these differences, the criteria for developing two-year curricula are largely the same in both countries. The findings further show that two-year VET programmes in Norway are not intended to lead to a direct labour market entry but are understood as a first step of a staged qualification whereas in Switzerland they are designed to find a viable balance between employability and permeability to the more demanding three-or four-year VET programmes. In both countries, the twoyear apprenticeships do not correspond to a holistic concept of vocation.