In Switzerland, where upper-secondary education consists of general education middle schools as well as company- and school-based VET programmes, and where two-thirds of young people still choose VET, more young people enter the increasingly demanded higher education sector via a school-based educational pathway than via dual VET (Kriesi et al., 2020; Leemann et al., 2019). In contrast to many European countries, where the proportion of young people in upper secondary middle schools has increased and the proportion in VET has decreased, company-based VET has retained its dominant position in Switzerland, having strong support from civil society as well as from education policy (Kriesi et al., 2022). Against the backdrop of a competition for high-performing pupils at the upper-secondary level, an new focus of VET policy is on the question of how to attract high-performing pupils for company-based VET (Elsholz & Neu, 2019; Esposito, 2022; Steimann, 2022). In the context of the political governance of the transition from lower to upper-secondary level, the aim of this study is to examine how company-based VET is positioned as an attractive educational pathway for high-performing pupils in different Swiss Cantons. What steering strategies, measures and instruments do actors of cantonal education policy and administration use to foster the attractiveness of company-based VET? How are these steering efforts justified? What critique, conflicts and 'sacrifices' result out of these steering efforts? These questions are addressed using the theoretical approach of the Sociology of Conventions (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2006; Diaz-Bone & Larquier, 2022). The data basis consists of documents (education policy initiatives, reports, etc.) and qualitative interviews with representatives of education administrations conducted in four German-speaking cantons. The results stress two main strategies strengthening the attractiveness and reputation of company-based VET for high-performing pupils. On the one hand, the access to the vocational baccalaureate (entrance qualification for a university of applied sciences via the VET pathway) is made easier (abolition of entrance examination) and more flexible respectively. On the other hand, legitimized by cost arguments and fears of competition, sacrifices are made at the expense of educational programs competing with company-based VET: their access is made more difficult (e.g. introduction of additional admission requirements) or their expansion gets purposefully limited (capping of classes). Furthermore, a wide range of targeted information and marketing campaigns support these cantonal steering efforts, aiming to promote and strengthen the reputation of company-based VET as an attractive educational pathway for high-performing pupils.

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