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FormationLearning: generational discomfort and lack of attraction
Bosses and an education researcher explain why the learning sector is losing speed.
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Swiss SkillsIf the Swiss dual training model makes the whole world, reality is less idyllic in the field: the shortage of apprentices has worsened and more than a quarter of the contracts are broken along the way, recalls the “Sonntagszeitung” on Sunday. The newspaper sought to understand why young people are less inclined to make learning. The trainers and specialists interviewed advance three main reasons.
1. The “fragile” gen z
The trainers describe a youth who often does not support criticism or instructions and seeks above all private life-life balance. This is what a hairdresser deplores who formed apprentices for twenty years to end up giving up on them. Others, like this manager of a heating-health company, evoke a lack of resistance from young people. The specialist and researcher Thomas Boll, director of the Zhaw Swiss Education Lab, is more nuanced: according to his data, apprentices are more persevering than gymnasians. And if they abandon during training, it is often for a “healthy” reorientation towards a more suitable activity.
2. A learning that has become too school
Specialists find that always more brilliant students opt for the gymnasium or general culture schools. Conversely, certain learnings become more complex and require more theoretical skills, which removes their “manual DNA”, deplore some learning masters.
3. Unchanging conditions
Long days, low wages and little vacation do not always attract young people: professions with irregular or considered rather physical times are particularly difficult to recruit. Some apprentices also ask for more bridges from college to discover the professions in order to know the prospects.
Concrete initiatives to seduce young people
Some companies are proactive to increase their attraction in the eyes of apprentices, reports the “Sonntagszeitung”: at the Planzer carrier, apprentices now have up to eight weeks of vacation. And the Bell butchers offer them transport and sports subscriptions.
The two companies say they are satisfied with the result: more applications and fewer abandonments. But, for learning to last, the solution also involves targeted communication, valuation of trades and strong human support, recall the two companies.
