This springboard helps young refugees find an apprenticeship
People who have only arrived in Switzerland as adolescents or young adults are at a disadvantage when it comes to vocational education and training. This is particularly true for those who do not speak any of the national languages well and have only completed a rudimentary school education in their country of origin.
They run the risk of a lifetime of unskilled labour and low-paid jobs. For the Swiss labour market, where there is a shortage of staff in many sectors, these young men and women represent a missed opportunity if they remain untrained.
In the preliminary course, young refugees learn about the Swiss working world and culture.
This is where the integration pre-apprenticeship, a project of the State Secretariat for Migration, comes in. Also known as a «refugee apprenticeship», the programme is a preliminary course for a vocational apprenticeship and is primarily aimed at refugees and temporarily admitted persons.
Find your own path in seven steps
- Step 1: Get to know your own interests and strengths
How everyday habits and dreams can serve as a guide to self-assessment for young people. A questionnaire for career selectors. - Step 2: Get to know professions and training programmes
An overview of the most important educational programmes, professions of the future, where the shortage of apprentices and skilled workers is greatest and which career paths lead via a university. - Step 3: Compare your own strengths with the requirements of professions and training programmes
Comparing your own skills with the requirements of professions, how people with disabilities can find their way into the desired working environment and what role performance tests play. - Step 4: Get to know interesting professions in a taster apprenticeship
The career choice internship is the reality check: what forms of taster apprenticeships there are and what young people need to know about taster apprenticeships. - Step 5: Review possible professions and training programmes and make a decision
To what extent starting a career is an important step in personal development, why the training company must be as good a fit as the profession - and how young professionals compete for titles. - Step 6: Look for an apprenticeship or register with a school
What is important when looking for an apprenticeship, how to make a good impression at an interview and ten tips for a convincing application portfolio. - Step 7: Prepare for the apprenticeship or school or clarify bridging programmes
Once you have decided what you want to do after compulsory schooling, it is important to find out more and prepare for it - otherwise there are a number of useful bridging programmes.
Over the course of a year, the learners are introduced to a regular apprenticeship (usually a certified apprenticeship). They work in the company and attend school one and a half days a week to improve their German, reduce academic deficits and acquire further skills needed to succeed in the apprenticeship.
They also learn about the Swiss working world and culture in the company: Punctuality, thinking along, but also learning from mistakes and many other social skills make them fit for the subsequent apprenticeship.
This enables many of them to enter vocational education and training and thus also into local society. Companies in Switzerland can make good use of these hands-on young people. Even if their German is not yet so good when they start their apprenticeship.
Further information:
The local careers information centre knows more.
