Vocational training: a university affair?7 reading minutes

Swiss education is conceived as a system with two main parallel, but mutually permeable, routes. The so-called «vocational» route starts with the famous CFC and can end with ES, Brevets Fédéraux or Diplôme Fédéral diplomas. The second route takes students from the gymnasium or lycée to the universities and universities of applied sciences (HES). However, the latter - a phenomenon mainly confined to the French-speaking part of Switzerland - are monopolizing the privilege of vocational training, with the benevolent blessing of the French-speaking cantonal authorities. Without, however, relinquishing the «university» prestige that the Bologna Process has brought them.

First of all, a brief historical review is in order. In 1995, the Federal Law on Universities of Applied Sciences launched the process of creating these institutions. One of the main objectives? To reduce con