The quality of the Swiss initial vocational education and training system through apprentices' perception of the connections between school and training company

Summary

Dual Systems like the Swiss initial vocational education and training (IVET) entail both a school- and a workplace-based learning. The connections between these two learning locations in terms of transfer of knowledge can contribute to IVET quality. This study focused on how these connections are perceived by retail and technical apprentices (N=320). Their answers to six open-ended questions about their perception of quality at school and at the training company were analyzed in an inductive and a deductive way. Results show that, overall, apprentices perceived the connections between learning at school and at the training company as good and effective. However, some apprentices—especially from the technical occupations— perceived that what they learned at school is not useful and aligned with their learning at the training company. The results are interpreted as reflecting a superficial and utilitarian conception of knowledge acquisition.