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Continuing education
Continuing education and training (CET) serves to improve and update skills, abilities and knowledge, and to expand them to encompass new fields and tasks. CET activities take place alongside the formal education and training system. This can take place in organised courses (non-formal education) or through informal learning (self-learning). Continuing education is targeted learning and is becoming increasingly important in the context of the constantly changing labour market and technological developments.
The majortiy of people living in Switzerland take part in some form of continuing education and training. The participation in CET activities depend, among other things, on the individual motivation, the available time, the individual financial resources or the continuing education and training offered. People who work full-time or with a workload over 50% participate more often in CET activities than people with a workload below 50%, and employed people do so more often than the unemployed. With rising the level of education, the amount of participation in CET activities increases.
Governance and framework conditions of continuing education
The Swiss continuing education and training (CET) landscape is characterised by great diversity with regard to responsibility, regulation, programmes offered and financing. CET is largely market-based organised. Private bodies often provide CET courses and programmes. CET is primarily each individual's own responsibility and is largely paid for by the CET students themselves. The Confederation and the cantons have a subsidiary role in CET: they intervene in the areas of CET where it would not be possible to achieve the pursued objectives and intended effects without suitable regulation or supportive measures. The tasks of the Confederation and the cantons therefore include the promotion of continuing education for educationally disadvantaged people. Further education programmes in the areas integration, basic skills, employability, etc. can be supported by the Confederation and the cantons.
Various laws passed by the Confederation include stipulations regarding continuing education and training. These regulations (like Switzerland's CET sector) have historically grown and go into different degrees of detail and serve different purposes, e.g.:
- The Federal Act on Continuing Education and Training sets out the principles and defines the requirements for the provision of financial aid by the federal government.
- The implementation of the principles of the Continuing Education and Training Act in the higher education sector is based on the Federal Act on the Funding and Coordination of the Swiss Higher Education Sector (HEdA).
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The Federal Vocational and Professional Education and Training Act regulates job-related CET.
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Various federal regulations relate to continuing educationand training in other policy areas, e.g. in relation to reintegration measures in the event of unemployment or disability.
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The Swiss Code of Obligations and Swiss Labour Law also include provisions on continuing education and training.
The cantons define the specifics of job-related CET in the cantonal laws which implement the Federal Vocational and Professional Education and Training Act. Depending on the canton, general (non-job-related) CET can be regulated differently, e.g. in a specific CET law, within the framework of the regulations on job-related CET, in laws on education and culture, or on another legal basis.
The cantons coordinate transregional tasks in continuing education and training via the Swiss Conference on Continuing Education and Training (SWBK). The SWBK is a specialist conference within the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) and acts in the interests of life-long learning. The cantonal representatives for CET form the SWBK.
