Part of a series of country reports on postsecondary vocational education and training in OECD countries. Higher level vocational education and training (VET) programmes are facing rapid change and intensifying challenges. What type of training is needed to meet the needs of changing economies? How should the programmes be funded? How should they be linked to academic and university programmes? How can employers and unions be engaged? The country reports in this series look at these and other questions. They form part of Skills beyond School, the OECD policy review of postsecondary vocational education and training.

This first chapter places the review of Switzerland in the context of the wider OECD study, presents the structure of the report, describes the main features of the Swiss postsecondary VET system, and compares its main features with those of other countries. It also sets out a number of key statistical indicators comparing Switzerland with other OECD countries. These cover both the education system and the labour market, including the changing mix of occupations in the labour market. It also provides an appreciation of the main strengths of the system, and briefly outlines the challenges to be addressed in the second chapter.

DOI : 10.1787/9789264062665-en