«A good reference puts bad grades into perspective»

Mrs Walser, who is the Lift project aimed at?

For young people from the seventh grade onwards with a difficult starting position for the upcoming career choice phase. For example, they perform poorly at school, have a lack of German language skills, motivation problems or parents who offer them little support. Lift's partners are schools from all over Switzerland.

How does Lift help these young people?

Participation is voluntary and requires parental consent as well as the young person's willingness to work on themselves. The project starts with modular courses. In one to two lessons per week, the young people work on social and personal skills that have top priority in the labour market: Punctuality, reliability, respect, self-motivation or work organisation.

Realising that they do have talents is a new experience for many of these young people.

Gabriela Walser, Co-Managing Director Project Lift

The aim is to find answers to crucial questions: What does the professional world demand of me? What do I need to be able to do this? With this in mind, the young people gain practical experience in the world of work and later share this with the group in order to learn from each other. In the short assignments, they work in a company once a week for two to three hours - outside of school hours. A work placement lasts three months; three are scheduled over the course of the project.

What is the aim of these work assignments?

The aim is to increase their chances of successful professional integration. And give them a sense of achievement: Young people who struggle at school often become convinced that they can't do anything. However, many of them have good manual skills that they can discover or improve during a work placement.

Realising that they do have talents is a new experience for many. It gives them a perspective. Each work assignment is followed by a reference, which the young people can enclose with their application when looking for an apprenticeship. A good reference puts poor grades into perspective. For many training companies, positive feedback from the world of work is more meaningful than a school report.

More information: www.jugendprojekt-lift.ch