Preparing young people for the labour market and facilitating their successful transition from school to work is becoming more and more important in modern society. Apprenticeships have been seen as a form of vocational education and training (VET), which fosters young peoples’ employability and ensures smooth school-to-work pathways in general, and a good means to integrate learners with lower school achievements in the labour market in specific (cf. Raffe 2008). This paper studies the introduction of a new form of two-year apprenticeships in comparison with the long existing traditional apprenticeships (Kammermann, Stalder, and Hättich in press).

Since 2004, there are two types of apprenticeships in Switzerland: three- to four-year apprenticeships for the better achieving youth, that lead to a Federal VET Diploma (EFZ, eidgenössisches Fähigkeitszeugnis); and the new two-year apprenticeships for the lower achieving youth that lead to a Federal VET Certificate (EBA, Eidgenössisches Berufsattest), which focus on practical activities and include support measures if needed (Swiss Confederation 2002; OPET 2005; 2007).

Both types of apprenticeship programmes are standardised at national level. Both are regulated by ordinances that are individually set up for every occupation. Following the principle of potential upward mobility and aiming at avoiding dead-ends permeability between the two-year and the three- or four-year programmes is ensured within occupational groups.

Swiss educational policy aims to ensure that by 2015 95 per cent of all youths accomplish a post-obligatory education qualification at upper secondary level (Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education 2006). The introduction of a new two-year apprenticeship can be seen as one measure to achieve this aim and to optimise the transition from school to work for all young people - including those with low academic achievements.

In our paper, we will discuss two assumptions related to the introduction of this two-year apprenticeship:

1)       creating favourable learning opportunities for lower achieving youth,

2)       fostering employability for young people with a Federal VET Certificate and providing possibilities for upward mobility to three-year-apprenticeships within the VET-system.

Integrating youths with a special needs background can be seen as one major challenge for the standardised two-year apprenticeship. Thus, when discussing the potential of the new two-year apprenticeships as regards their learning opportunities, employability and options to transfer onto the VET-Diploma-level, the individual academic background of the learners will specifically be considered.

The theoretical framework for the investigation of our core assumptions is built on earning oriented pedagogy (erwerbsorientierte Pädagogik; Kraus 2006, 2008). One of the main elements of the earning oriented pedagogy is the conceptualisation of the earning schema, which links the dimensions of the earning sphere (labour market), the earning oriented pedagogy (VET programme) and the individual (apprentices) into a coherent framework. In opposite to employability concepts, which focus the individual and his or her achievements, the earning oriented pedagogy offers a broader understanding of employability by including the perspectives of employers, teachers and trainers and the individual learner/apprentice in their specific societal, economic and cultural setting.

To study our assumptions we take into account all three dimensions of the earning schema.

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