Swiss apprenticeship in the shop window of the world

For the 40 young professionals from Switzerland, the World Skills are all about the honor. For others, this is another proof of success for the dual Swiss education system.

The bakery confectionery Böhli in Appenzell is lucky. She has one of the best confectioner confectioners in her bakery, maybe even the budding world champion. But that turns out only at the end of the week. Currently, Andrea Hohl is still behind a glass wall in her competition kitchen in one of the seemingly endless halls of Anhembi Park in the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo and handles all sorts of ingredients and devices. It is serious. On Wednesday the competitions of the world championships World Skills started. Hollow has trained countless celebration evenings to make it to the point where the best of their profession compete.

High expectations

Franz Probst dedicated himself to overcoming this problem. He is also in São Paulo these days, but in a different mission. Probst is founder and CEO of SkillSonics. The company “exports” Swiss vocational education abroad, where it offers companies vocational training programs based on proven Swiss methods. In India, the company has already trained 4,000 workers. Its customers include, above all, Swiss companies that lack specialists abroad. They also have this problem in Brazil, where Probst is likely to launch a project soon. He has concrete inquiries from the economy, and he also has positive signals from public institutions and associations. «The Swiss apprenticeship is becoming an export hit», says Probst, who now hopes for the best possible performance of the Swiss delegation to the World Skills. The young participants from Switzerland are the best ambassadors for the Swiss education system. This is getting more and more attention.

On the subject

Success thanks to a dual education system and heart and soul. Much personal commitment and great support from employers and professional associations make the Swiss participants to co-favorites at the World Skills in Brazil.