Berufliche Grundbildung gegen Bezahlung: Eine Fallstudie von den Rändern des Schweizer Bildungssystems

Using the example of a single case study, the contribution provides insights into a scarcely researched VET field: private vocational schools. Anna is a young woman with migration background who completed her vocational education at a private school by paying fees amounting to 37,000 Swiss francs. Her single mother, who had to draw welfare and is continuing her education while working, had persuaded her to do so after Anna had not found an apprenticeship in the bridge-year course either. The family could hardly afford the school fees. They needed the financial support of her grandparents - former guest workers. Despite unpleasant experiences in the internship, Anna successfully completed her vocational education, passed the entrance exam for the vocational baccalaureate and finally obtained the university entrance qualification.

These private schools offers VET in commerce, IT, design, childcare and medical practice assistance. Despite this, these schools are not considered in VET research nor in private school research. And yet, the example of these schools could be used to examine a variety of issues that shape the Swiss VET system in term of social inequality. For example, it surprises how these schools do not know any school admission requirements apart from a compulsory school certificate. Hypothetically, these schools could thus position themselves as a niche on a rather selective and thinned-out training and apprenticeship market – mind you, against payment.
Therefore, the contribution exploratorily asks to what extent and how this vocational education for sale both undermine and reinforce social inequalities in the VET system.

While in the subject-oriented transition research cooling-out processes are studied in depth, we know little about how at-risk youth attempt to resist these forces. From a theoretical point of view, Annas "choice" for a private school could thus be interpreted as a precarious practice of resistance in the transition regime. Not only was there a substantial tuition to be paid, for which the family also had to go into debt. Once started to pay in installments, dropping out of school leads to a financial loss. It was no coincidence that changing schools was not an option for her even when she reported harassment during her internship. In Anna's vocational education, social inequality could thus only be overcome insofar as she took it upon herself as a burden.