An instructor training an apprentice. The COVID-19 gastronomy concept developed by the trade association ‘Gastroaargau’ is ensuring that young people can still get their professional qualifications. | Image: Ennio Leanza/Keystone

Here, examination experts and teachers at vocational schools sit together in classrooms: we’re in the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (SFIVET). It has three sites: in Zollikofen, Lausanne and Lugano. These sites will remain in future, too, though with one major difference: by August 2021, this vocational education institution is due to become the 37th university in Switzerland.

What might sound to outsiders like a simple bureaucratic act is merely the final step on a journey that started years ago. The beginnings of SFIVET go back 50 years (see the box ‘50 years of vocational training’), but its tasks were barely regulated. In order to put this right, the Swiss federal parliament has passed the ‘SFIVET Law’ that is due to come into force on 1 August 2021.

50 years of vocational training
A training institution for teachers in vocational education.

That was the original job description of the Swiss pedagogical Institute for Vocational Education (SpIVE), as it was called when it was founded in Zollikofen near Bern in 1972. It opened a site in Lausanne in 1975, and another in Lugano in 1991. Initially, its focus was on the industrial sector, with commercial professions being added later. On 1 January 2007, SpIVE became SFIVET, the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. It is soon to be given university status and is largely financed by federal monies from the government’s vocational training resources, along with third-party funding derived from services, contract research and fees.

At the second attempt to pass this law, all the political parties voted unanimously in favour – which was by no means wholly to be expected. During the consultation process for the legislation, the Swiss Confederation of Employers complained that the proposed law had too much of an “academic focus”. SFIVET’s director, Barbara Fontanellaz, disagrees: “SFIVET has a long tradition of proximity to the world of work. It’s like it’s written in our DNA”, she insists.

Competition and cooperation

The Swiss association for tertiary institutions of education, ‘swissuniversities’, was not very happy about SFIVET’s new status. It complained that it only has two courses that conform to the Bologna regulations (its Bachelor and Master of Science in Vocational Education and Training), with only a few graduates from each of them. What’s more, the entrance requirement is a higher vocational diploma, whereas the pedagogical universities require a school-leaving certificate from a high school. They also claim that SFIVET is infringing on the principle of subsidiarity “by offering competing courses” in the words of Heinz Rhyn, the Rector of the Zurich University of Teacher Education (PH Zurich). In fact, this competition already exists today. “I can understand the criticism”, says Barbara Fontanellaz. “But we have a national contract to fulfil for the whole of Switzerland”.

“We have a national contract to fulfil”.Barbara Fontanellaz

What’s more, she insists that there is really only a minor overlap with the work of the pedagogical universities. The latter are primarily focused on training future teachers for elementary schools. “And we don’t train them at all”, says Fontanellaz. “We offer qualifications to professionals in their own fields, which is why we are justified in providing access to those with a higher vocational diploma”. Graduates of SFIVET’s Bachelor and Master programmes go on to work in fields that are close to their area of training. They are often active in public administration, industry organisations and research. Research is an important aspect of SFIVET’s work. “The pandemic has shown that our institutions can provide knowledge that is really relevant to young people about to enter the world of work”, says Fontanellaz. To this end, SFIVET also engages in collaborations with the universities. Even Heinz Rhyn admits: “For PH Zurich, SFIVET is an important research and development partner for topics in vocational education. We also cooperate in the field of further education”.

By late 2022, this new university aims to have attained full accreditation. “The legislative process has been delayed, so we are under considerable pressure with regard to our accreditation procedures”, says Fontanellaz. “But this is giving us a positive boost in our development”.

 

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