Ursula Renold, why is the academic upper-secondary school route overrated?
For education expert Ursula Renold, a university degree is no longer a guarantee of a successful career. Those who still want to obtain one can confidently start their educational journey with dual vocational education and training program (VET).??
Thanks to the Swiss education system, it is still possible to obtain a university degree even if a young person starts their career with a dual VET programme. I am a good example myself. At 15, my motivation in school was quite low, so I decided to enter a dual VET pathway and complete a commercial apprenticeship. – today, I am a professor at ETH Zurich.
Today, switching between different educational pathways is even easier than it was back then – that’s because the Swiss education system is now more permeable than anywhere else in the world. Secondary school, dual vocational education and training, vocational baccalaureate, university of applied sciences, university: not only is this educational career possible, there are also certain benefits to it.
The expert
Ursula Renold is a Professor of Education Systems at the Department of Management, Technology and Economics at ETH Zurich. She started her professional career with a dual VET program in a bank because, at the age of 15, she had no interest in school.
Transferrable skills, for example, are becoming increasingly important. Companies want to hire employees who are flexible and resilient so that they can respond quickly to changes whenever they might occur. Gaining work experience during education and training – and not necessarily sitting in a lecture theatre – is the primary way young people acquire the soft skills they need to do this. That is the finding of a external page study recently published by my research group.
My colleagues and I have also noticed this with our ETH students. Those that completed a VET pathway, rather than going down the academic route, start their studies from a different place, have different experiences and ask different questions. The different educational backgrounds the students come from are enormously enriching for everyone.
A functioning economy also needs a diverse workforce. The Swiss labour market is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises, and the demand from these SMEs for university graduates is very low, particularly in industry. A university degree is no longer a guarantee of a successful career, at least not in Switzerland.
Nevertheless, academics are an important driver of research and innovation. The creation of new knowledge is a key resource for Switzerland. And there certainly are young people out there who enjoy going to school, who are hungry for knowledge and are suited to life at academic upper-secondary school.
However, I also see young people who get a bit of extra help from those around them to get into an academic upper-secondary school. But that’s only half the story: the road to a university degree is still long and hard, and can be marked by failure and feelings of inferiority. This prevents these young people from developing healthy self-esteem, which is so important for the development of adolescents and their intellectual potential.
If they are to be empowered in their development, young people need freedom and the opportunity to make their own decisions. They are under enough pressure as it is. Not all adolescents have coped well with the pandemic, for example. Social media is another challenge. Add to this the almost insurmountable pressure they feel from those around them to perform, and young people can become overwhelmed.
Parents who have been through the academic system themselves or who come from a country where VET leads you nowhere may not be aware of the advantages of the Swiss education system. Yet I am convinced that parents who do not send their child to an academic upper-secondary school are not ruining their children’s future – they are in fact helping to put them on a fulfilling, self-determined and successful path. In my view, that is the key to a successful career.