We use vocational training curricula to investigate how IT skills are trained within broader "skills packages" and how these relate to labour market outcomes. Skills packages are the typical combinations of IT skills (e.g., CNC) and technical or nontechnical skills (e.g., material sciences or work safety) that are jointly required in the…

In vocational education and training, coaching can be used to support apprentices' ability to manage their own (further) competence development 'on the job'. This is largely requested among employees at workplaces in internationally competitive sectors of the economy which require of their workforce a great deal of flexibility and learning…

Technological, social, and economic changes challenge workers' resilience at many levels. Innovative learning cultures have the potential to accommodate industry's skills expectations with workers need for new forms of workplace learning. This study explores the role of learning cultures as (1) moderators between stability and change, (2)…

Based on qualitative research on and automation technology apprentices in Switzerland, this paper examines apprentices' experiences of participating in their company's production activities and becoming members of their community of practice, and the influence of these experiences on the development of their occupational identity. Participation in…

We empirically investigate whether the relationship between the fraction of filled apprenticeships in a particular occupation in the past and the fraction of prospective apprentices having very early intentions to train in this occupation has an impact on the decision to change the intended choice of occupation. We use a unique dataset from…

In many parts of the world, recognition of prior learning (RPL) is considered to be an important means of improving access to VET qualifications. In Switzerland -- the country with arguably the highest rates of company-based VET at upper secondary level -- adults with work experience of at least 5 years have had the option of accessing VET…

This article examines the long-run effect of higher education, measured in average years of tertiary schooling, on the level and growth rate of national per capita income. It uses an improved dataset on educational attainments which not only reduces measurement error but also overcomes data comparability issues and allows us to estimate the…

Occupations differ in their prestige, but little research has examined how workers manage working in a low-prestige occupation. This case study with retail-clerk apprentices in Switzerland uncovers the identity strategies the apprentices employ to help them normalise the situation they find themselves in: they are learning an occupation that is…

Even though Japan and Switzerland are characterised by comparatively low youth unemployment rates, non-standard forms of employment are on the rise, posing a risk to the stable integration of young labour market entrants. Drawing on the French approach of societal analysis, this paper investigates how country-specific school-to-work transition…

Drawing on our experiences of interviewing elites, this article suggests that methodological reflexivity yields insights into the construction of symbolic and social hierarchies in contextualised interactions. The paper focuses on "academic culture" as the "locus" through which power relations were experienced in interview…