To meet the demand for specialists on the Swiss labour market, it is vital for the skills structure of the working population to continually develop in line with the economy’s needs. Over the medium term, this can be achieved on the one hand through the labour market-oriented educational pathway. On the other hand – and in the near term, too – the adult working population can adapt to changing job profiles on the labour market by building on their existing skills, acquiring higher qualifications and continuing their professional development.
Switzerland today already boasts an education system with a complementary offering of vocational and academic study options that ensures a high degree of permeability both within and between the two educational fields. As a result, both young people and adults with quite different interests and strengths have access to vocational and general education opportunities at all levels. A particular hallmark of Switzerland’s vocational training system is its high level of correlation with the labour market, since training content and national qualification procedures are defined by organisations situated in the world of work – professional associations and industry federations, for example.
One focal aim of the federal government’s skilled labour policy is to strengthen the range of advisory services and advanced learning opportunities for adults. It promotes the use of such offerings to help ensure that the working population stays abreast of the labour market’s increasingly demanding skills requirements.