Nowadays, most developed countries sees significant increase of interest in higher education and a significant drop of interest in a specialized professional qualification in so-called blue-collar jobs. However, Switzerland might be an interesting use case example where - although this trend is also visible - focuses on training well experienced specialists based on market analysis and specific market needs. Number of places in schools and practices may be often limited based on those criteria.

Vocational education and training (VET) in Switzerland starts as early as for 15 years old, after lower-secondary level. It has a long tradition among Swiss companies that have developed strong training programmes that are often beneficial for both sides of these contracts. Pupils can select from around 250 different professions, based on which different educational schemes are available.

Usually, pupils attend school for 1-2 days a week and work in their future professions for another 3-4 days, gaining necessary skills and experience in the real-world scenarios while gaining necessary theoretical and generic knowledge at school.

This distinguishes Switzerland from most countries in the region where vocational training may start only in or after third level education and has usually lower hours count. This system also posed a significant challenge during the recent Pandemic during which schools were not closed for a significant part of it because pupils would still need to be present at their jobs which, largely, could not offer a work-from-home model and were not closed for business. Therefore, the benefit of home-education in fighting the pandemic would be very limited and could only cause more damage.

Looking at the market, this creates a very unique landscape where a rich country source their most basic but equally crucial jobs from their own education system and in which it is very difficult to compete for immigrants and persons from outside of this system while having a significant need to import highly educated experts with highest degrees, especially in science and economy.

Sources:

https://swisseducation.educa.ch/en/vocational-education-and-training-0

https://www.sfivet.swiss/

https://www.oecd.org/switzerland/42578681.pdf