Vocational schools in Switzerland often claim that it is difficult to find and motivate candidates for teaching positions in subjects of vocational instruction. Several reasons are discussed: low status of teachers, difficult adolescent pupils (15 to 19 years old), economic situation, invisibility of the profession, poor career options for example.

Teaching at a vocational school is regulated by federal laws and regulations (BBG Berufsbildungsgesetz, 2006) and cantonal regulatory statutes. There are two different types of teachers: teachers of general academic subjects and teachers of vocational instructions.

Teachers of vocational instruction must have an occupational background in the field they will be teaching. Typically, these teachers complete an apprenticeship, gain working experience in their occupational field (for about 20 to 30 years) and graduate in higher professional training (tertiary B, ISCED 5 B) before they start to teach at a vocational school. They start as part-time teachers with a limited number of lessons (4 to 12 per week). If the number of lessons increases, they have to attend a special study program to become a full-time teacher.

Becoming a full-time teacher means a change in the occupational identity, as the occupation changes from the field of crafts, production or administration e.g. to education. It is thus a far-reaching personal decision.

Studies on career choice of teachers often focus on compulsory school teachers or on general education school teachers. EURYDICE informs in a report about employment conditions and wages of teachers in Europe (2004), the situation on the labor market and other factors of the socio-economic situation of Swiss teachers is reported by Wolter, Denzler and Weber (2003). Studies which focus on our group are rare. Some studies about job satisfaction, working hours (Landert, 2002) or work load include vocational teachers (Ulich, Trachsler, Inversini, & Wülser, 2003).

But little is known systematically on the determinants of the decision, the decision process and the educational and occupational pathways of these candidates.

Based on a model of career choice (Eccles, 2005) questions of social influence on the decision process, task perception, career opportunities, perception of the salary, as well as the social status of teachers were addressed in our study. In addition we used Super’s model of career development, especially the aspect of value changes (Super, 1994 ).

Great emphasis was put on the description of the occupational and educational pathways of the teachers.

In this paper we are going to describe distinct career patterns of teachers for vocational instruction. These patterns are to be compared to career patterns of teachers in general education.

Despite of very distinct individual educational and occupational pathways, teachers in vocational instruction often share similar value systems and expectancies towards their new occupation. 

We will show how these pathways and values are related to the perception of different aspects of the occupation. Finally, we will present results showing the motivational forces that drive the change of the occupational identity.

European context: this discussion adds to a better understanding of career changes of middle-aged professionals.

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