Do Apprentices in Switzerland make use of the permeable system?
Permeability is often mentioned as one of the key characteristics of strong education systems. This post presents results of a recent reseach project on fashion technology apprentices to examine the impact of permeability in real life.
By Katie Caves and Amela Zubovic
When we talk about strong education systems, we often mention permeability as one of the key characteristics. In previous blog posts like this and this, we showed that Swiss apprentices have plenty of progression routes after graduation, which makes Swiss VET very attractive and prevents dead ends. However, the fact that system permeability exists does not necessarily mean that anyone is taking advantage of it. To examine how permeability looks in real life, this post presents the results of a recent research project on fashion technology apprentices and the education, training, and career pathways they take after the apprenticeship.
The main objective of the report (Audrey Au Yong Lyn, Thomas Bolli, Ladina Rageth, and Ursula Renold, plus Aranya Sritharan for another part of the project) is to investigate the professional developments of fashion technologists after their basic vocational training. In this blog post we will focus on the pathways fashion technology apprentices take after graduation to see how a permeable education system works in real life.
The study uses longitudinal data from the Federal Statistical Office on apprenticeship graduates in fashion technology and similar occupations in the 2011-2018 cohorts. The report analyzes their pathways through education, training, and careers in the first seven years after graduation. It also compares fashion technologists with apprentices from similar occupations. Similar occupations are, for example, designers, interior decorators, shoemakers, and textile experts. The study also distinguishes between two different apprenticeship programs: The Federal VET Diploma with and without the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate (BM1). The BM1 is extra academic content for students planning to attend a university of applied sciences or an academic university. Most apprentices choose not to do the BM1 during their apprenticeship (they can do it later if they want).
Education Status
The study looks at three outcomes for graduates’ post-apprenticeship pathways. The first outcome is graduates’ education status, which measures the probability that an individual starts another formal education and/or training program in the first seven years after graduating. The study also investigates how the probability of starting a new program changes over time. Figure 1 shows the distribution of education status by group and number of years after graduation.
In general, we can observe that apprentices who did the BM1 (pink lines) are more likely to go into further education than apprentices without the BM1 (green lines). Looking only at those with the BM1, we notice that apprentices in fashion technology are somewhat more likely to go into further education right after their apprenticeship than their peers from similar occupations (38% vs. 30%). However, these differences vanish over time and, on average, a similar proportion of both groups ends up in further education.
The picture looks quite different for apprentices that did their apprenticeship without the BM1 (green lines). Again, apprentices in fashion technology are more likely to be in further education in the first year after graduation than apprentices from similar occupations (32% vs. 20%). Even though the shares decrease over time, the difference between these two groups remains. Looking at the averages over all seven years, apprentices in fashion technology are more likely to pursue further education than their peers from similar occupations (25% vs. 17%).
Figure 1: Education Status of former Apprentices by Group and Number of Years after Graduation.
Education Category
Apprenticeship graduates can take various paths in their further education and training, so we also want to know what kind of further education individuals choose to pursue—this outcome is their education category. We distinguish between a specialized baccalaureate, an academic baccalaureate, a professional education and training (PET) degree (either through a PET college or a PET exam), a university of applied sciences, and an academic university. Figure 2 shows which education paths are chosen by former apprentices that go into further education. Again, we distinguish between apprentices in fashion technology and similar occupations, as well as apprentices with and without the BM1.
Most apprentices who studied fashion technology without the BM1 choose upper-secondary-level next steps (56%), with the majority choosing the specialized baccalaureate (32%). This option is like the BM1 but is done after the end of the apprenticeship. 21% of graduates do additional education on the secondary level that doesn’t include a specialized baccalaureate, such as another apprenticeship. The other half of the fashion technology alumni without the BM1 choose to go to a PET college (21%), get a PET diploma through exams instead of coursework (5%), go to a university of applied sciences (15%), or choose to attend an academic university (4%).
For apprentices from similar occupations without the BM1, the picture looks quite similar. However, we found that fashion technologists are somewhat more likely to go for a specialized baccalaureate, an academic baccalaureate, or a PET college.
Figure 2: Further education by education category
For apprentices with the BM1, the distribution across education categories is quite different for fashion technologists and for apprentices from similar occupations. First, both groups are less likely to go for further education on the secondary level than the two groups without the BM1. Second, when those apprentices with the BM1 do choose an educational path on the secondary level, fashion technologists mostly pick an academic baccalaureate while apprentices from similar occupations are more likely to choose another apprenticeship without a baccalaureate.
Third, for both groups with the BM1, tertiary education is more popular. Among fashion technology graduates who pursue further education, around 20% choose a PET college, 4% go for PET exams, 35% enroll at a university of applied sciences, and 11% go to an academic university. For apprentices from similar occupations, there is a clear preference towards the university of applied sciences as this path makes up 61% of all further education choices.
Education Field
Another thing we are interested in is whether apprentices stay in the same occupation where they completed their apprenticeship or change the direction of their professional career when choosing further education. This outcome is called the education field. We distinguish three categories: further education a similar field to the apprenticeship, in a dissimilar field, and general education programs or qualifications.
We find that apprentices without a BM1, for fashion technologists as well as similar occupations, are somewhat evenly distributed across those three possible fields. For former fashion technology apprentices with a BM1, 41% of further education happens in a similar field, 43% in a dissimilar field, and the rest is general. Interestingly, apprentices in similar occupations are much more likely to choose further education in a dissimilar field (72%) than within their own field (21%).
Conclusion
This study shows that apprentices in fashion technology as well as similar occupations have the possibility to go into further education and most of them take the opportunity to acquire more education and further their professional careers.
In general, former apprentices that did their apprenticeships with the BM1 are more likely to be in further education than apprentices without the BM1. However, a large share of apprentices that did their apprenticeship without the BM1 will go on to acquire a baccalaureate later on. Having both options—doing the extra academic content during the apprenticeship or sometime later—makes permeability accessible for a wide variety of students. Graduates with the BM1 tend to pursue tertiary education programs like universities of applied sciences.
It is quite common for young people to choose further education in fields unrelated to their apprenticeship, although it seems to vary by occupation. Doing an apprenticeship in a specific occupation does not close any doors for a young person, since they can make career changes later on very easily. However, doing an apprenticeship in a field they enjoy can give young people a head start over a system with purely general education opportunities at the secondary level.