In a dual initial vocational education and training (IVET) system, an integration between school- and work-based learning is essential to provide apprentices with necessary trade-specific skills and to ensure the quality of training. However, apprentices often perceive a disconnection between learning sites. Accordingly, based on the concepts of…

This study aims to investigate the Swiss initial vocational education and training (IVET) partnership from the perspective of several stakeholders on the ground. Collaboration between stakeholders is essential in dual IVET to connect school- and workplace-based learning and to ensure the quality of the entire system. However, such collaboration…

With this paper we want to contribute to the debate on the usage of vocational training as a tool to promote the integration of disadvantaged groups. We focus in particular on programmes that target refugees and highlight the organisational and coordination challenges that must be addressed in order to develop such programmes. Relying on knowledge…

This book addresses what is, perhaps, the single most important issue for vocational education; its relatively low standing in an era of high aspiration. The work explores the nature, extent and consequences for an educational sector that whilst having an increasingly important role in contemporary societies is seen to be of low standing across…

As the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) expands its Registered Apprenticeship College Consortium (RACC) among community colleges and employer partners, those involved are looking to countries like Germany and Switzerland for inspiration. In some cases, that has meant partnering with companies from those countries, which have had more comprehensive…

The Swiss model of high school matches students with career employment, jobs, and education. The system offers lessons to how the U.S. might create partnerships between business and education and also make high school more interesting and engaging for students.

After a period of relative neglect in many countries, apprenticeships and other forms of work-based learning are experiencing a revival. Their effectiveness in easing school-to-work transitions and serving the economy is increasingly recognised. However, engaging individuals, employers, social partners and education and training systems in such…

At more than $80,000, Switzerland's per capita income is the 3rd highest in Europe and the 4th highest in the world. Switzerland is home to one of the world's most innovative economies and its unemployment rate rests comfortably below 4 percent. All of this in a nation that produces comparatively few university graduates. In an era marked by…

The apprenticeship movement is reshaping skills, policies, and programs in the United States at a critical moment in our country's history. This reader offers a chorus of voices emanating from different countries and populations, echoing commitment to bright, sustainable workforce futures through a well-crafted approach to this talent development…

This research by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for Sutton Trust examined the English education system and its apprenticeship programs. BCG reported that the UK is failing nearly half its young people by providing inadequate vocational opportunities. BSG presents key findings that include: (1) more than four in ten people have only low level…

The dual system of vocational training, utilising both company training and vocational school attendance, is generally acknowledged to be a successful model for reducing youth unemployment. However, the decreasing number of training opportunities in countries with this system poses a crisis for the approach. One strategy for overcoming the problem…

The literature on business involvement in education in Canada, the United States, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, the United Kingdom, and other European countries was reviewed. Special attention was paid to the following topics: workplace trends/changes; skill requirements/deficits; youth employment/unemployment; integration versus…