Terminating apprenticeship contracts – destabilising or liberating?

Terminating an apprenticeship contract can often prove destabilising for the young people concerned, although contract termination does sometimes go hand in hand with a liberating reorientation of one's career. For companies, apprenticeship contract terminations are associated with costs. Moreover, instances of interrupted and discontinued training are the main reason why about one in every ten young people fail to obtain an upper-secondary-level qualification.

Young woman in difficult conversation with her superiors
Adobe Stock/Photographee.eu

At present, statistical data on apprenticeship contract termination and subsequent resumption of training is patchy and unreliable at national level. This study has been launched to address this gap and study training outcomes for a cohort of young people who began a two-year VET programme for a Federal VET Certificate in 2012. VET statistics compiled by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) allow us to examine the number of apprenticeship contracts that were terminated during the VET programme as well as the number of young people who resumed VET by the end of 2014. We also seek to ascertain whether, in resuming their training, these learners simply changed company, opted for a more/less challenging level of training, or whether they changed occupation entirely.

In this context, particular attention is given to differences between occupations and between cantons. Finally, the study should give rise to a recommendation on how all cantons may uniformly calculate apprenticeship contract termination rates and VET resumption rates.

Additional information

Premature termination of apprenticeship contracts and resumption of training in two-year VET programmes: situation in the Canton of Bern