Strengthening Dual VET as an Attractive Educational Pathway for High-Achieving Pupils in Switzerland – a Governance Perspective on Strategies, Instruments, and Justifications

Context: The question of which educational pathway pupils choose after compulsory education addresses an important issue of a country’s education policy. While in many European countries, general education predominates at the upper-secondary level, around two-thirds of pupils choose a (primarily dual) vocational education and training (VET) programme in Switzerland. However, statistics show that high-achieving pupils who aspire to enter tertiary education prefer a school-based pathway rather than dual VET. Representatives of dual VET thus fear that these pupils drift into school-based general or vocational education programmes and thus are lost for dual VET. One important focus of Switzerland’s VET policy lies, therefore on the attraction of high-achieving pupils to dual VET. Approach: Referring to the theoretical framework of the Sociology of Conventions and based on two cantonal cases studies, this study investigates how in recent times, actors have been positioning dual VET as an attractive educational pathway for high-achieving pupils in the context of the transition from lower to upper-secondary level in Switzerland. The data basis consists of publicly available qualitative policy documents and expert interviews with representatives of the cantonal education administration. Findings: The cantons studied have pursued both a direct (by making the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate more appealing) and an indirect (limiting school-based VET programmes that are considered as unwanted competition to dual VET) governance strategy to strengthen dual VET as an attractive pathway for high-achieving pupils at the upper-secondary level in Switzerland. The wide range of steering instruments used to put these strategies into practice at a cantonal level are justified by the actors relying on a so-called «dual VET justification standard». Conclusion: The distribution of young people among different education programmes should not only be understood as consequence of individual preferences and decisions but rather also as a result of strategic steering interventions by a country’s education policy