The proposal comes from Andreas Glarner of the UDC, the country’s most popular party, and essentially boils down to this: no one would be able to enter a university or the ETH without first having completed an apprenticeship. A school-leaving certificate would no longer be sufficient. Students would first have to work, learn a trade, and only then, after completing an additional bridging course, would they be able to progress to higher education.
The idea behind this is that those who have already gained work experience complete their degree more efficiently, change their field of study less often and adapt better to the labour market. It sounds reasonable in theory. The problem lies in the details.
The organisation representing all Swiss universities has stated in no uncertain terms that the proposal “would effectively do away with the ‘gymnasium’ route”, which is the traditional path to university. And the Employers’ Union, which normally champions anything that promotes vocational training, has also expressed scepticism: there are not enough apprenticeship places for all the young people already seeking them today. Adding the demand from future university students on top of that would render the system unviable.
For someone coming from Spain who arrived with a degree already under their belt, this discussion is rather curious. Here, apprenticeships carry a weight and command a level of respect that almost no one in Spain accords them. Plumbers, electricians, refrigeration engineers: in Switzerland, these are fully-fledged professions, with a final exam and an official diploma. The fact that a politician wants to make this a compulsory starting point for everyone says a lot about how education is viewed in this country.