Long heralded as an intangible pillar of Swiss prosperity, the Federal Certificate of Competence is now undergoing a silent crisis that few dare to name. Behind the reassuring rhetoric about the «value of apprenticeships» lies a more brutal reality: for a growing proportion of young people, the educational effort is no longer a guarantee of economic protection or social stability. This gap is neither accidental nor cultural. It is the product of specific political, legal and economic choices made over more than twenty years, which have gradually weakened one of the most solid foundations of the Swiss model. Understanding this downgrading is essential if we are to grasp what is really happening.
by Luc-André Meylan, economist and columnist for Souveraineté Suisse
The downgrading of the CFC in the Swiss model
For more than two decades, the Federal Certificate of Competence has ceased to be what it once was: a powerful vehicle for professional integration and economic stability. A cornerstone of the Swiss dual system, it gave many young people rapid access to financial independence and lasting social recognition. Today it is faced with a profoundly changed reality. Increased competition on the labour market, wider recognition of foreign diplomas and the structural effects of free movement have undermined one of the foundations of the Swiss model.
Contrary to a culturalist reading of the phenomenon, this downgrading is not due to a generational lack of interest in learning. It can be explained by specific economic and legal mechanisms. The revaluation of the CFC, which is regularly mentioned in the public debate, comes up against structural constraints that go well beyond the sphere of vocational training.
The reconfiguration of the educational and economic framework
Since the late 1990s, a series of texts have profoundly reconfigured the role of education in Switzerland. The Bologna Process (1999), signed by Switzerland, imposed the Bachelor's-Master's-Doctorate system, the modularisation of curricula and the logic of credits, at the cost of impoverishing content and aligning with an average European academic standard.
At the same time, the Bilateral Agreements I (1999), by introducing the free movement of persons, eliminated the scarcity of Swiss qualifications, exposing graduates and holders of CFCs to permanent competition, squeezing wages and breaking the link between training effort and economic protection. The Bilateral II agreements (2004) extended this dynamic by integrating Switzerland into the European mechanisms for research, mobility and recognition of diplomas, making funding and cooperation conditional on the alignment of standards.
Added to this is the Lisbon Recognition Convention (1997), which established the legal equivalence of foreign diplomas, and the adoption of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), which replaced the assessment of knowledge with that of measurable results. The constant influence of the OECD, via PISA and the doctrine of human capital, has oriented schools towards employability rather than intellectual standards, while the integration of education into WTO rules, through the GATS, has accelerated the commercialisation of training.
Taken together, these measures have lowered the level of education in Switzerland by replacing demands with compliance, knowledge with employability and training with labour flow management.
Twenty years of silent decommissioning
Until the turn of the millennium, the CFC represented a credible promise for many families: rapid access to the job market, predictable salary progression and lasting integration into the local economic fabric. Apprenticeships offered a solid alternative to long studies, without debt or prolonged job insecurity, and in many sectors were the main route to stability.
This promise has been gradually eroded. In the regions most exposed to international and cross-border competition - Geneva, Ticino, the Jura Arc, but also certain industrial centres in German-speaking Switzerland - apprenticeships are declining, not because of a lack of interest, but because their perceived economic value has weakened. The labour market into which a CFC holder enters today is no longer the same as that experienced by previous generations.
A saturated and competitive job market
Entry to the labour market after an apprenticeship is now taking place in a saturated environment. Young people trained in Switzerland are being joined by experienced cross-border workers, graduates from a variety of European education systems and candidates prepared to accept significantly lower pay.
In almost half of the professions without collective agreements, this competition is taking place without any safeguards; to the extent that, since 2003, in around 50 % of professions without collective agreements, some pay cuts have been as high as 50 %.
The exchange rate differential in favour of the Swiss franc accentuates this pressure. In border regions, it is particularly damaging to occupations accessible after a CFC. For young workers, this means temporary contracts, low starting salaries and discontinuous career paths, making it more difficult, if not impossible, to achieve economic independence and family stability.
SME trainers under pressure
For companies, particularly SMEs, the incentives to train apprentices have weakened. Training a young person involves a real investment: supervision, passing on know-how, legal responsibilities. Historically, this effort was offset by the loyalty of employees trained according to the company's needs.
This logic is now being undermined. An SME that takes on a young person with a CFC places him or her in direct competition with a workforce that is immediately operational and often less expensive. For equivalent perceived skills, economic rationality leads to a preference for flexibility and cost, to the detriment of local training.
The result is a long-lasting paradox: companies are struggling to recruit apprentices but are reluctant to take them on on a long-term basis.
Recognition of qualifications and dilution of specific features
These developments are part of an international legal and economic framework. The Lisbon Recognition Convention introduced legal equivalence between foreign diplomas and national qualifications. While this facilitates mobility, it dilutes the specific value of training courses rooted in the Swiss production context.
The CFC, designed to meet the standards and practices of the national economy, thus finds itself in competition with qualifications whose comparability is based more on their format than on their actual relevance to local needs. This levelling out weakens the protective function that vocational training has historically fulfilled.
Bologna and the implicit hierarchy of career paths
The Bologna process has reinforced this dynamic. By establishing the Bachelor's degree as the benchmark and bringing universities of applied sciences closer to the university model, it has sent a clear signal to families: academic careers will be better equipped to face wage competition and the uncertainties of the job market.
In the urban middle classes, this signal is interpreted as a rational protection strategy. The choice of grammar school and higher education is not a rejection of technical occupations, but an adaptation to an environment that has become unfavourable to apprenticeship qualifications.
It's impossible to upgrade without rethinking the framework
The measures aimed at strengthening apprenticeships and raising the profile of the CFC are, in theory, economically coherent. However, they do not make economic sense, as long as the framework of bilateral agreements remains unchanged, their scope remains limited. The free movement of people, combined with the almost automatic recognition of diplomas and the exchange rate differential, exerts a powerful influence on the economy. constant competitive pressure on occupations accessible after a CFC, This has neutralised any attempt at sustainable pay rises.
Added to this is an imperative that is often overlooked: a credible upgrade of the CFC presupposes a proactive and reactive adaptation of training content. Systematically linking CFCs with skills in IT, applied engineering and the controlled use of artificial intelligence is no longer a choice, but a condition for survival.
In an economy structured by digital systems, data and automation, a CFC confined to traditional skills alone would remain exposed to standardisation and low-cost competition.
However necessary this increase in skills may be, it will not be enough. Even when technologically enhanced, the CFC will not regain any real economic value as long as the legal framework of the bilateral agreements will continue to dissipate the scarcity of skilled labour and exert structural pressure on wages.
A lasting improvement in the status of skilled labour in Switzerland therefore requires both an ambitious modernisation of vocational training and a clear political breakthrough.
With this in mind, we need to to reject Bilaterals III and to repeal Bilaterals I and II in order to put an end to twenty-five years of policies that have proved to be a failure. economic and social disaster, which have impoverished Switzerland as never before. Only by ending the bilateral agreements will we be able to restore the real scarcity of skilled labour, restore purchasing power in the long term, restore Switzerland's economic sovereignty and ensure a prosperous future for the entire population.
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