Upper secondary level

After compulsory education, adolescents pass over to the upper secondary level. The upper secondary level is split up into general education and vocational education. General education schools include matura schools and specialised middle schools. Basic vocational education and training can be done in businesses with additional teaching in the vocational schools and business-to-business courses (apprenticeship), or in a full-time school, such as a Lehrwerkstätte or full-time vocational school. For adolescents who, after completing the lower secondary level, cannot immediately commence basic vocational education and training or continue their education at a school on the upper secondary level, courses to bridge gaps in training are offered as transitional solutions. Around two thirds of adolescents commence basic vocational education and training after the lower secondary level and one third choose a general education school (matura school or specialised middle school).

Courses to bridge gaps in training

In the last 10 years, there has been a significant increase in courses to bridge gaps in training. There are different models of combined bridging courses (practical work in companies combined with general education), full-time schooling, and integration-oriented bridging courses (tuition for foreign-language pupils, in some cases combined with practical work). They aim to support young people in their career decision and to help them prepare for the working world, for vocational education and training, or for general education schools, by encouraging key skills and closing individual knowledge gaps. Courses to bridge gaps in training are facultative, may entail costs, and entail specific admission processes. According to the Federal Law on Vocational Education and Training, the cantons are to take measures for people with individual educational deficits at the end of compulsory education, so as to prepare them for basic vocational education and training; this is leading to a reorganisation of bridging courses in the cantons.

Duration of education and graduation

The various education courses at upper secondary level last from 2 to 4 years. 90% of all young people graduate on the upper secondary level. The transition from compulsory education to the upper secondary level is to be optimised, so that as of 2015, 95% of all young people will graduate on the upper secondary level. The students complete the upper secondary level at the age of 18 or 19 and receive a corresponding graduation certificate.

Further education

Depending on the type of graduation at the upper secondary level, a career can be commenced immediately, or further studies at the tertiary level can begin – either at university (cantonal university and Federal Institute of Technology, universities of applied sciences or universities of teacher education) or in higher vocational education and training (colleges of higher vocational education and training, federal PET diploma examinations or advanced federal PET diploma examinations).