Federal Act
on Vocational and Professional Education and Training
(Vocational and Professional Education and Training Act, VPETA)

¹ Re­spons­ib­il­ity for up­per-sec­ond­ary level vo­ca­tion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing (VET) and ter­tiary-level pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion shall be shared by the Con­fed­er­a­tion, the Can­tons and pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions (so­cial part­ners, trade as­so­ci­ations as well as oth­er or­gan­isa­tions and edu­ca­tion and train­ing pro­viders with­in the VPET sys­tem). They shall strive to en­sure that there is an ad­equate num­ber of train­ing op­tions with­in the VPET sys­tem, par­tic­u­larly in prom­ising oc­cu­pa­tion­al and pro­fes­sion­al fields.

² The meas­ures taken by the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall be de­signed to provide the Can­tons and pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions with fin­an­cial and oth­er re­sources to en­cour­age ini­ti­at­ives to the greatest ex­tent pos­sible.

³ In or­der to ful­fil the pur­pose of this Act:

a.

the Con­fed­er­a­tion, the Can­tons and pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions shall co­ordin­ate their activ­it­ies;

b.

the Can­tons and pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions shall also co­ordin­ate their activ­it­ies.

¹ This Act ap­plies to all oc­cu­pa­tion­al and pro­fes­sion­al fields ex­cept those covered by the high­er edu­ca­tion sec­tor:

a.

up­per-sec­ond­ary level vo­ca­tion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing (VET), in­clud­ing sub­jects taught in the pre­par­at­ory course for the Fed­er­al Vo­ca­tion­al Bac­ca­laur­eate (FVB) Ex­am­in­a­tion;

b.

ter­tiary-level pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion;

c.

job-re­lated con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing;

d.

qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures, qual­i­fic­a­tions and titles;

e.

train­ing provided to VPET pro­fes­sion­als;

f.

re­spons­ib­il­it­ies and prin­ciples as­so­ci­ated with vo­ca­tion­al, edu­ca­tion­al and ca­reer guid­ance;

g.

fed­er­al fund­ing to help cov­er the costs of the VPET sys­tem.

² This Act does not ap­ply to edu­ca­tion and train­ing gov­erned by oth­er Fed­er­al Acts.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may, in agree­ment with the Can­tons, ex­clude in­di­vidu­al oc­cu­pa­tion­al or pro­fes­sion­al fields from the scope of this Act if do­ing so is re­quired for the ef­fi­cient al­loc­a­tion of tasks between the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons.

This Act shall foster and de­vel­op:

a.

a Vo­ca­tion­al and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing (VPET) sys­tem that en­ables in­di­vidu­als to de­vel­op on an oc­cu­pa­tion­al, pro­fes­sion­al and per­son­al level, to be­come in­teg­rated in­to so­ci­ety, and par­tic­u­larly in­to work­ing life, that provides them with the skills they need, the will­ing­ness to work in a flex­ible man­ner and the abil­ity to suc­ceed in work­ing life;

b.

a VPET sys­tem that en­ables com­pan­ies to be­come more com­pet­it­ive;

c.³

a bal­an­cing of edu­ca­tion and train­ing op­por­tun­it­ies in so­cial and re­gion­al terms, true gender equal­ity, the elim­in­a­tion of dis­crim­in­a­tion against people with dis­ab­il­it­ies as well as equal op­por­tun­it­ies and in­teg­ra­tion for for­eign na­tion­als;

d.

the abil­ity of learners to trans­fer from one course of study and/or edu­ca­tion­al ap­proach to an­oth­er with­in the VET and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion sec­tors as well as between the VET and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion sec­tors and oth­er sec­tors of the edu­ca­tion sys­tem (per­meab­il­ity);

e.

great­er trans­par­ency of the VPET sys­tem.

¹ In or­der to de­vel­op the VPET sys­tem, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall lend sup­port to stud­ies, pi­lot pro­jects, VPET re­search and the cre­ation of vi­able struc­tures in new VPET areas.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall also be­come in­volved in such activ­it­ies whenev­er this is needed to fur­ther the de­vel­op­ment of the VPET sys­tem.

³ If ne­ces­sary, and fol­low­ing con­sulta­tion with the Can­tons and pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions con­cerned, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may tem­por­ar­ily de­vi­ate from the pro­vi­sions of this Act for pi­lot pro­jects.

⁴ The qual­ity and in­de­pend­ence of VPET re­search must be guar­an­teed by qual­i­fied re­search in­sti­tutes.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall pro­mote:

a.

the pro­vi­sion of in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ment­a­tion of in­terest to Switzer­land as a whole or to in­di­vidu­al lin­guist­ic re­gions with­in Switzer­land;

b.

the cre­ation of teach­ing ma­ter­i­als in­ten­ded for lin­guist­ic minor­it­ies.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may pro­mote VPET ini­ti­at­ives that fa­vour great­er un­der­stand­ing and ex­change between lin­guist­ic com­munit­ies.

² Spe­cific­ally, it may pro­mote:

a.

in­di­vidu­al mul­ti­lin­gual­ism, in par­tic­u­lar by es­tab­lish­ing re­quire­ments as far as the lan­guage of in­struc­tion and lan­guage train­ing of teach­ers are con­cerned;

b.

ini­ti­at­ives taken by the Can­tons, pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions and com­pan­ies to send teach­ers and learners to oth­er lin­guist­ic re­gions.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion may pro­mote VPET ini­ti­at­ives in­ten­ded to help dis­ad­vant­aged re­gions and groups.

¹ Edu­ca­tion and train­ing pro­viders with­in the VPET sys­tem shall be re­spons­ible for en­sur­ing the con­stant im­prove­ment of qual­ity.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall pro­mote qual­ity im­prove­ment, es­tab­lish qual­ity stand­ards and mon­it­or com­pli­ance.

¹ Reg­u­la­tions on the VET and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion sec­tors shall en­sure the greatest pos­sible per­meab­il­ity both with­in the VET and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion sec­tors as well as between the VET and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion sec­tors and oth­er sec­tors of the edu­ca­tion sys­tem.

² The pro­fes­sion­al or non-pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence or tech­nic­al or gen­er­al skills gained out­side usu­al form­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing path­ways shall also be re­cog­nised and/or val­id­ated where ap­pro­pri­ate.

Host com­pan­ies and VET schools shall en­sure that the rights of learners to be con­sul­ted are re­spec­ted.

¹ The meas­ures con­tained in this Act must not cre­ate un­fair dis­tor­tions of com­pet­i­tion af­fect­ing private pro­viders on the edu­ca­tion mar­ket.

² Pub­lic pro­viders com­pet­ing with un­sub­sid­ised private pro­viders must charge mar­ket prices for their job-re­lated CET courses.

The Can­tons shall take meas­ures to pre­pare learners for up­per-sec­ond­ary level VET pro­grammes if these learners have not reached the re­quired level of aca­dem­ic achieve­ment on com­ple­tion of com­puls­ory edu­ca­tion.

If there are in­dic­a­tions of a fu­ture or cur­rent im­bal­ance on the ap­pren­tice­ship mar­ket, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may take suit­able ac­tion for a lim­ited peri­od of time and use avail­able fund­ing to re­store bal­ance.

¹ Learners and host com­pan­ies shall enter in­to an ap­pren­tice­ship con­tract. Un­less this Act provides oth­er­wise, the ap­pren­tice­ship con­tract is gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions⁴ on ap­pren­tice­ship con­tracts (Art. 344–346a).

² The ap­pren­tice­ship con­tract shall be entered in­to for the full dur­a­tion of the VET pro­gramme. If work-based train­ing in­volves ap­pren­tice­ships in vari­ous com­pan­ies, then sev­er­al ap­pren­tice­ship con­tracts may be entered in­to to cov­er the dur­a­tion of each suc­cess­ive ap­pren­tice­ship.

³ The ap­pren­tice­ship con­tract must be ap­proved by the loc­al can­ton­al au­thor­ity. No fees may be charged for such ap­prov­al.

⁴ If the ap­pren­tice­ship con­tract is ter­min­ated, the host com­pany provid­ing work-based train­ing must no­ti­fy the loc­al can­ton­al au­thor­ity and, if ap­plic­able, the VET school without delay.

⁵ If a host com­pany ceases its activ­it­ies or no longer provides work-based train­ing in ac­cord­ance with stat­utory pro­vi­sions, the Can­tons shall en­sure that learners are able to com­plete their VET pro­gramme in the prop­er man­ner.

⁶ The pro­vi­sions of this Act ap­ply even if an ap­pren­tice­ship con­tract is not signed, is not sub­mit­ted for ap­prov­al or is sub­mit­ted late for ap­prov­al.

¹ VET pro­grammes are in­ten­ded to en­sure the trans­fer and ac­quis­i­tion of up­per sec­ond­ary-level skills, know­ledge and know-how (here­in­after re­ferred to as com­pet­ences) needed to carry out the tasks as­so­ci­ated with an oc­cu­pa­tion, oc­cu­pa­tion­al field or field of activ­ity (the lat­ter two terms here­in­after re­ferred to jointly as «oc­cu­pa­tion­al activ­ity»).

² In par­tic­u­lar, VET pro­grammes in­clude the trans­fer and ac­quis­i­tion of:

a.

spe­cif­ic com­pet­ences that learners re­quire in or­der to carry out an oc­cu­pa­tion­al activ­ity in a com­pet­ent and con­fid­ent man­ner;

b.

ba­sic com­pet­ences in lan­guage, com­mu­nic­a­tion and so­ci­ety (LCS) that learners re­quire in or­der to gain ac­cess to work­ing life, re­main eco­nom­ic­ally act­ive and be­come part of so­ci­ety;

c.

eco­nom­ic, en­vir­on­ment­al, so­cial and cul­tur­al know­ledge and skills that learners need to con­trib­ute to sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment;

d.

abil­ity and will­ing­ness to pur­sue lifelong learn­ing, ex­er­cise crit­ic­al judge­ment and reach de­cisions.

³ VET be­gins after a learner com­pletes com­puls­ory edu­ca­tion or ob­tains an equi­val­ent qual­i­fic­a­tion. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the cri­ter­ia whereby a min­im­um age for com­mence­ment of VET may be set.

⁴ The man­dat­ory teach­ing of a second lan­guage is gov­erned by VET or­din­ances.

⁵ The teach­ing of phys­ic­al edu­ca­tion is gov­erned by the Sport Pro­mo­tion Act of 17 June 2011⁵.⁶

¹ VET pro­grammes shall in­clude the fol­low­ing seg­ments:

a.

work­place train­ing seg­ment (ap­pren­tice­ship);

b.

classroom in­struc­tion seg­ment com­pris­ing vo­ca­tion­al and LCS sub­jects;

c.

ad­di­tion­al train­ing seg­ment to com­ple­ment the work­place train­ing and classroom in­struc­tion seg­ments if such ad­di­tion­al train­ing meets the needs of the oc­cu­pa­tion­al activ­ity.

² VET nor­mally oc­curs at the fol­low­ing learn­ing loc­a­tions:

a.

the work­place train­ing seg­ment is provided on the host com­pany premises, with­in host com­pany net­works, at up­per-sec­ond­ary level trade schools, at up­per-sec­ond­ary level com­mer­cial schools or at oth­er ac­cred­ited work­place train­ing in­sti­tu­tions;

b.

the classroom in­struc­tion seg­ment is provided at VET schools and com­prises both vo­ca­tion­al and LCS sub­jects;

c.

the ad­di­tion­al train­ing seg­ment is provided at branch train­ing centres or third-party train­ing centres for the pur­pose of com­ple­ment­ing work­place train­ing and classroom in­struc­tion seg­ments.

³ Us­ing the re­quire­ments of the oc­cu­pa­tion­al activ­ity as a frame of ref­er­ence, the cor­res­pond­ing VET or­din­ance shall es­tab­lish how the con­tent of the VET pro­gramme shall be dis­trib­uted across each of the three VET seg­ments men­tioned in para­graph 1, how the con­tent will be struc­tured and how much time will be de­voted to each seg­ment.

⁴ Ob­lig­a­tions to learners shall be de­term­ined by the ap­pren­tice­ship con­tract. Where no ap­pren­tice­ship con­tract has been signed, the cor­res­pond­ing ob­lig­a­tions shall de­pend on the learn­ing loc­a­tion.

⁵ In or­der to achieve VET pro­gramme ob­ject­ives, host com­pan­ies, VET schools and branch train­ing centres shall co­ordin­ate their activ­it­ies.

¹ VET pro­grammes cov­er a peri­od of two, three or four years.

² On com­ple­tion of a two-year VET pro­gramme, learners shall take a fi­nal ex­am­in­a­tion to ob­tain the Fed­er­al VET Cer­ti­fic­ate. Two-year VET pro­grammes are de­signed to take the spe­cif­ic needs of learners in­to ac­count.

³ On com­ple­tion of a three-year or four-year VET pro­gramme, learners shall take a fi­nal ex­am­in­a­tion to ob­tain the Fed­er­al VET Dip­loma.

⁴ Hold­ers of the Fed­er­al VET Dip­loma who ob­tain passing scores on the FVB Ex­am­in­a­tion after com­plet­ing the pre­par­at­ory course for that ex­am­in­a­tion shall be is­sued the Fed­er­al Vo­ca­tion­al Bac­ca­laur­eate.

⁵ Com­pet­ences ac­quired through non-form­al learn­ing may be val­id­ated through spe­cif­ic qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures lead­ing to is­su­ance of a Fed­er­al VET Dip­loma.

¹ The dur­a­tion of a VET pro­gramme may be shortened or lengthened to ac­com­mod­ate es­pe­cially tal­en­ted learners, learners who have already un­der­gone rel­ev­ant train­ing, learners with learn­ing dif­fi­culties and learners with dis­ab­il­it­ies.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue spe­cial pro­vi­sions cov­er­ing the in­di­vidu­al tu­tor­ing of learners with learn­ing dif­fi­culties in two-year VET pro­grammes.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide fund­ing to cov­er the costs of in­di­vidu­al tu­tor­ing.

¹ The State Sec­ret­ari­at for Edu­ca­tion, Re­search and In­nov­a­tion (SERI)⁷ shall is­sue edu­ca­tion or­din­ances for each VET pro­gramme. These VET or­din­ances shall be is­sued at the re­quest of pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions or, if ne­ces­sary, at its own ini­ti­at­ive.

² The VET or­din­ances shall cov­er the fol­low­ing as­pects in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

the sub­ject mat­ter and dur­a­tion of the cor­res­pond­ing VET pro­gramme;

b.

the ob­ject­ives and re­quire­ments of the work­place train­ing seg­ment;

c.

the ob­ject­ives and re­quire­ments of the classroom in­struc­tion seg­ment;

d.

the scope of train­ing con­tent and dis­tri­bu­tion across learn­ing loc­a­tions;

e.

qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures, qual­i­fic­a­tions and titles.

³ Qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures to val­id­ate non-form­al learn­ing shall be based on cor­res­pond­ing VET or­din­ances.

⁴ …⁸

¹ The host com­pan­ies re­spons­ible for the work­place train­ing seg­ment of VET pro­grammes shall strive to en­sure that learners pro­gress as much as pos­sible and shall mon­it­or learner pro­gress peri­od­ic­ally.

² Host com­pan­ies must first ob­tain a per­mit from the loc­al can­ton­al au­thor­ity; no fees may be charged for the is­su­ance of such per­mits.

¹ VET schools shall be re­spons­ible for the classroom in­struc­tion seg­ment of VET pro­grammes, which cov­ers both vo­ca­tion­al and LCS sub­jects.

² VET schools shall have an in­de­pend­ent edu­ca­tion man­date to do the fol­low­ing:

a.

help learners to de­vel­op their per­son­al­ity and so­cial skills as they at­tend les­sons on vo­ca­tion­al and LCS sub­jects;

b.

help learners to de­vel­op their par­tic­u­lar tal­ents and of­fer spe­cial courses that take ac­count of the needs of both spe­cially tal­en­ted per­sons and per­sons with learn­ing dif­fi­culties;

c.

design VET pro­grammes in such a way as to pro­mote true gender equal­ity and dis­cour­age dis­crim­in­a­tion against people with dis­ab­il­it­ies.

³ At­tend­ance of VET school courses is man­dat­ory.

⁴ VET schools may also or­gan­ise both pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion and job-re­lated CET courses.

⁵ VET schools may work with pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions and com­pan­ies to or­gan­ise branch courses or sim­il­ar third-party train­ing courses for the ad­di­tion­al train­ing seg­ment of VET pro­grammes.

⁶ VET schools may handle co­ordin­a­tion activ­it­ies for the pur­pose of en­abling the vari­ous VET par­ti­cipants to work to­geth­er.

¹ In Can­tons where work­place train­ing takes place, the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies shall see to it that VET schools provide train­ing con­tent that cor­res­ponds to ac­tu­al needs.

² Man­dat­ory courses shall be free of charge.

³ Any learner who meets the pre­requis­ites at the host com­pany and VET school may at­tend op­tion­al courses without salary de­duc­tion. At­tend­ance of these courses shall be ar­ranged by agree­ment with the host com­pany. If no such agree­ment can be reached, the loc­al can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall de­cide.

⁴ If a learner is re­quired to at­tend a re­medi­al course in or­der to suc­cess­fully com­plete his or her VET pro­gramme, then the VET school shall reach a spe­cial agree­ment with the com­pany and the learner to or­gan­ise such a course. If no such agree­ment can be reached, the loc­al can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall de­cide. Learners may at­tend these courses without salary de­duc­tion.

⁵ At the re­quest of trade as­so­ci­ations, SERI may au­thor­ise spe­cial­ised courses to be offered at the in­ter­can­t­on­al level if the fol­low­ing con­di­tions are met: the courses en­able train­ing ob­ject­ives to be reached more ef­fect­ively, the courses in­crease host com­pany will­ing­ness to provide work­place train­ing with­in the frame­work of VET pro­grammes, the course can be giv­en without ex­cess­ive ad­di­tion­al cost and there are no sig­ni­fic­ant dis­ad­vant­ages for par­ti­cipants.

¹ Branch courses and sim­il­ar third-party train­ing courses are de­signed to en­able the trans­fer and ac­quis­i­tion of ba­sic know-how. These courses are in­ten­ded to com­ple­ment the work­place train­ing and classroom in­struc­tion seg­ments of VET pro­grammes if such ad­di­tion­al train­ing meets the needs of the oc­cu­pa­tion­al activ­ity.

² Work­ing with pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions, the Can­tons shall en­sure that an ad­equate num­ber of branch courses or sim­il­ar third-party train­ing courses are made avail­able.

³ At­tend­ance of branch courses is man­dat­ory. At the re­quest of the host com­pany, the Can­tons may free learners from their ob­lig­a­tion to at­tend a branch course if the course con­tent is already covered by an­oth­er course that the learner is at­tend­ing in a com­pany train­ing centre or up­per-sec­ond­ary level trade school.

⁴ Any­one who or­gan­ises branch courses or sim­il­ar third-party train­ing courses may ask the host com­pan­ies or VET school in­volved to pay a pro­por­tion­ate share of the costs. In or­der to avoid com­pet­it­ive dis­tor­tions, pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions that or­gan­ise branch courses or sim­il­ar third-party train­ing courses may ask non-mem­ber com­pan­ies to pay a high­er share of the costs.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the cost shar­ing frame­work and scope.

¹ The Can­tons shall be re­spons­ible for over­all su­per­vi­sion of VET pro­grammes.

² Su­per­vis­ory activ­it­ies shall com­prise the pro­vi­sion of guid­ance and sug­ges­tions to parties to the ap­pren­tice­ship con­tract as well as over­all co­ordin­a­tion between the VET par­ti­cipants.

³ Su­per­vis­ory activ­it­ies shall also in­clude the fol­low­ing:

a.

en­sur­ing the qual­ity of work­place train­ing, in­clud­ing branch courses or sim­il­ar third-party train­ing courses;

b.

en­sur­ing the qual­ity of the classroom in­struc­tion seg­ment of VET pro­grammes;

c.

mon­it­or­ing ex­am­in­a­tions and oth­er qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures;

d.

en­sur­ing that ap­pren­tice­ship con­tracts are in line with stat­utory pro­vi­sions;

e.

en­sur­ing that con­tract­ing parties abide by the terms of their ap­pren­tice­ship con­tracts.

⁴ If a joint re­quest is made by edu­ca­tion and train­ing pro­viders and the learners, the Can­tons shall de­cide on the fol­low­ing mat­ters:

a.

val­id­a­tion of non-form­al learn­ing un­der Art­icle 17 para­graph 5;

b.

cases re­ferred to in Art­icle 18 para­graph 1.

⁵ With­in the frame­work of their su­per­vis­ory activ­it­ies, the Can­tons may:

a.

claim back all or part of the fed­er­al fund­ing giv­en to the third parties re­ferred to in Art­icle 52 para­graph 2 sen­tence 2;

b.

ter­min­ate an ap­pren­tice­ship con­tract.

¹ The FVB cer­ti­fies that the hold­er has the pre­requis­ite know­ledge and skills needed to at­tend a uni­versity of ap­plied sci­ences.

² The pre­par­at­ory course for the FVB Ex­am­in­a­tion re­ferred to in Art­icle 17 para­graph 4 may also be at­ten­ded after a learner ob­tains the Fed­er­al VET Dip­loma.

³ The Can­tons shall en­sure that there is an ad­equate sup­ply of pre­par­at­ory courses for the FVB Ex­am­in­a­tion.

⁴ The pre­par­at­ory course for the FVB Ex­am­in­a­tion shall be free of charge at pub­lic schools. Fed­er­al or can­ton­al sub­sidies may be paid to private schools.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the rules ap­ply­ing to the FVB.

¹ Ter­tiary-level pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion is in­ten­ded to en­able the trans­fer and ac­quis­i­tion of com­pet­ences needed to carry out the com­plex tasks and de­cision-mak­ing as­so­ci­ated with a giv­en pro­fes­sion.

² Hold­ers of a Fed­er­al VET Dip­loma, a ter­tiary-level high­er edu­ca­tion qual­i­fic­a­tion or an equi­val­ent qual­i­fic­a­tion may pur­sue pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion.

A ter­tiary-level pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fic­a­tion may be ob­tained:

a.

by pre­par­ing for a fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion or ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion;

b.

by en­rolling in a fed­er­ally re­cog­nised study pro­gramme at a pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tion.

¹ Suit­able pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence and ex­pert­ise are re­quired in or­der to take a fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion or an ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion.

² The cor­res­pond­ing pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions shall es­tab­lish ad­mis­sion re­quire­ments, course con­tent, qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures, qual­i­fic­a­tions and titles. They shall take in­to ac­count com­pleted courses of study. The ex­am­in­a­tion rules shall be sub­ject to ap­prov­al by SERI. They shall be pub­lished in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette in the form of a ref­er­ence made in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 13 para­graph 1 let­ter g and 3 of the Pub­lic­a­tions Act of 18 June 2004⁹.¹⁰

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the re­quire­ments and pro­ced­ures for ob­tain­ing ap­prov­al.

⁴ The Can­tons may of­fer pre­par­at­ory courses.

¹ Any­one wish­ing to at­tend a fed­er­ally re­cog­nised study pro­gramme at a pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fic­a­tion in­sti­tu­tion must have suf­fi­cient pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence, un­less such pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence is in­cluded in the course of study.

² The full-time study pro­gramme shall last a min­im­um of two years, in­clud­ing train­ee­ships at host com­pan­ies. The part-time study pro­gramme shall last a min­im­um of three years.

³ The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs, Edu­ca­tion and Re­search (EAER)¹¹ shall work with pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions to es­tab­lish the min­im­um re­quire­ments for fed­er­al re­cog­ni­tion of study pro­grammes and con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing at pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions. They shall es­tab­lish the ad­mis­sion re­quire­ments, course con­tent, qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures, qual­i­fic­a­tions and titles.

4 The Can­tons may of­fer their own courses of study.

⁵ The Can­tons shall be re­spons­ible for over­all su­per­vi­sion of pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions that of­fer fed­er­ally re­cog­nised study pro­grammes.

By struc­tur­ing the learn­ing pro­cess, job-re­lated CET en­ables learners to:

a.

re­fresh, deep­en and broaden ex­ist­ing pro­fes­sion­al com­pet­ences or ac­quire new pro­fes­sion­al com­pet­ences;

b.

re­main pro­fes­sion­ally flex­ible.

The Can­tons shall en­sure an ad­equate sup­ply of job-re­lated CET courses.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall sup­port job-re­lated CET.

² In par­tic­u­lar, it shall provide fund­ing for job-re­lated CET that en­ables learners to:

a.

re­main eco­nom­ic­ally act­ive after they have been made re­dund­ant;

b.

find new em­ploy­ment if their work­week per­cent­age has been re­duced or if they have stopped work­ing en­tirely.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall also sup­port meas­ures de­signed to im­prove the co­ordin­a­tion, trans­par­ency and qual­ity of job-re­lated CET.

⁴ Fed­er­ally-fun­ded job-re­lated CET must be co­ordin­ated with the la­bour mar­ket meas­ures men­tioned in the Un­em­ploy­ment In­sur­ance Act of 25 June 1982¹².

Pro­fes­sion­al com­pet­ence shall be cer­ti­fied on the basis of a gen­er­al ex­am­in­a­tion, a series of par­tial ex­am­in­a­tions or oth­er SERI-re­cog­nised qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the rules ap­ply­ing to qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures. It shall be re­spons­ible for en­sur­ing the qual­ity and com­par­ab­il­ity of qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures. The as­sess­ment cri­ter­ia used for qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures must be ob­ject­ive and trans­par­ent and en­sure equal op­por­tun­it­ies.

² Ac­cess to qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures shall not be con­tin­gent upon at­tend­ance of spe­cif­ic courses of study. SERI shall es­tab­lish the con­di­tions whereby can­did­ates may be ad­mit­ted to qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide fund­ing to or­gan­isa­tions that de­vel­op or of­fer oth­er qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures.

Only hold­ers of an up­per sec­ond­ary-level vo­ca­tion­al qual­i­fic­a­tion or a ter­tiary-level pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fic­a­tion shall be per­mit­ted to use the titles es­tab­lished in the cor­res­pond­ing reg­u­la­tions.

¹ The Fed­er­al VET Cer­ti­fic­ate shall be awar­ded to learners who ob­tain passing scores on their fi­nal ex­am­in­a­tion or whose com­pet­ences have been val­id­ated through an equi­val­ent qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ure.

² The Fed­er­al VET Cer­ti­fic­ate shall be is­sued by the loc­al can­ton­al au­thor­ity.

¹ The Fed­er­al VET Dip­loma shall be awar­ded to learners who ob­tain passing scores on their fi­nal ex­am­in­a­tion or whose com­pet­ences have been val­id­ated through an equi­val­ent qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ure.

² The Fed­er­al VET Dip­loma shall be is­sued by the loc­al can­ton­al au­thor­ity.

¹ The FVB shall be awar­ded to hold­ers of the Fed­er­al VET Dip­loma who ob­tain passing scores on the FVB Ex­am­in­a­tion or whose com­pet­ences have been val­id­ated through an equi­val­ent qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ure.

² …¹³

³ The Can­tons shall be re­spons­ible for or­gan­ising FVB Ex­am­in­a­tions and is­su­ing FVBs. The Con­fed­er­a­tion may also or­gan­ise FVB Ex­am­in­a­tions.

¹ The Can­tons shall be re­spons­ible for or­gan­ising qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures.

² On re­quest, SERI may del­eg­ate a pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tion to or­gan­ise a qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ure for spe­cif­ic re­gions of Switzer­land or for the en­tire coun­try.

¹ No fees may be charged to learners or host com­pan­ies for ex­am­in­a­tions lead­ing to is­su­ance of the Fed­er­al VET Cer­ti­fic­ate, the Fed­er­al VET Dip­loma or the FVB.

² Fees may be charged to learners who with­draw from or fail to ap­pear at an ex­am­in­a­tion for no jus­ti­fi­able reas­on as well as to learners who re­peat an ex­am­in­a­tion.

¹ Fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tions and ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tions are gov­erned by the rules es­tab­lished for these ex­am­in­a­tions (Art­icle 28 para­graph 2).

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall be re­spons­ible for over­all su­per­vi­sion of these ex­am­in­a­tions.

¹ Can­did­ates who ob­tain passing scores on a fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion or an ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion shall be awar­ded the cor­res­pond­ing ter­tiary-level pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fic­a­tion.

² Both types of pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fic­a­tions shall be is­sued by SERI.

³ SERI shall main­tain a pub­lic re­gister with the names of the hold­ers of ter­tiary-level pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fic­a­tions.

¹ Can­did­ates en­rolled in a pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tion who ob­tain passing scores on the fi­nal ex­am­in­a­tion or equi­val­ent qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ure shall be awar­ded the cor­res­pond­ing ter­tiary-level pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fic­a­tion.

² The ex­am­in­a­tion pro­ced­ure and equi­val­ent qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures are sub­ject to the min­im­um re­quire­ments (Art­icle 29 para­graph 3).

¹ Work­place train­ers handle the work­place train­ing seg­ment of VET pro­grammes.

² Work­place train­ers shall have re­ceived train­ing in their tech­nic­al field as well as an ad­equate level of train­ing in ped­ago­gic­al and di­dact­ic meth­ods.

³The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the min­im­um re­quire­ments for the train­ing of work­place train­ers.

⁴ The Can­tons shall en­sure that work­place train­ers re­ceive ad­equate train­ing.

¹ Teach­ers work­ing in the VET, pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion and job-re­lated CET sec­tors shall have re­ceived train­ing in their tech­nic­al field as well as in ped­ago­gic­al and di­dact­ic meth­ods.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the min­im­um re­quire­ments that must be met by teach­ers work­ing in these sec­tors.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion may es­tab­lish train­ing pro­grammes de­signed for oth­er pro­fes­sion­als with­in the VPET sys­tem such as ex­am­iners and oth­er work­ers in the VET or pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion sec­tors.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall sup­port vo­ca­tion­al ped­agogy.

² For this pur­pose, it runs the Swiss Fed­er­al Uni­versity for Vo­ca­tion­al Edu­ca­tion and Train­ing (SFUVET). The re­mit and struc­ture of SFUVET are laid down in the SFUVET Act of 25 Septem­ber 2020¹⁵.

¹ Vo­ca­tion­al, edu­ca­tion­al and ca­reer guid­ance helps young people and adults to make the right choices as far as their oc­cu­pa­tion, course of study and ca­reer are con­cerned.

² It con­sists in the pro­vi­sion of in­form­a­tion and per­son­al guid­ance.

¹ Vo­ca­tion­al, edu­ca­tion­al and ca­reer guid­ance coun­sel­lors shall re­ceive fed­er­ally re­cog­nised train­ing.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the min­im­um re­quire­ments for the re­cog­ni­tion of courses of study.

¹ The Can­tons shall be re­spons­ible for provid­ing vo­ca­tion­al, edu­ca­tion­al and ca­reer guid­ance.

² They shall en­sure that vo­ca­tion­al, edu­ca­tion­al and ca­reer guid­ance activ­it­ies fall in line with la­bour mar­ket meas­ures provided for in the Un­em­ploy­ment In­sur­ance Act of 25 June 1982¹⁷.

¹ With­in the range of the ap­proved budgets, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall provide fund­ing to cov­er an ap­pro­pri­ate por­tion of the costs of VET and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion un­der this Act.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall mainly provide the Can­tons with lump-sum fund­ing so that they may carry out the tasks re­ferred to in Art­icle 53. The Can­tons shall pass on these sub­sidies to the third parties con­cerned in pro­por­tion to the tasks that have been del­eg­ated to them.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall pay the re­main­ing por­tion of fund­ing to:

a.

the Can­tons and third parties so that they may carry out pro­jects de­signed to de­vel­op and im­prove the qual­ity of VET and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion (Art. 54);

b.

the Can­tons and third parties so that they may carry out spe­cif­ic activ­it­ies that serve the pub­lic in­terest (Art. 55);

c.

third parties so that they may or­gan­ise fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tions, ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tions and oth­er study pro­grammes at pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions (Art. 56);

d.¹⁸

per­sons who have com­pleted a pre­par­at­ory course for a fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion or ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion. (Art. 56a).

¹ The lump-sum fund­ing paid by the Con­fed­er­a­tion to the Can­tons shall mainly be cal­cu­lated on the basis of the num­ber of learners en­rolled in VET pro­grammes. Ad­equate con­sid­er­a­tion shall also be giv­en to the range and type of VET pro­grammes as well as the avail­ab­il­ity of pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may also take oth­er cri­ter­ia in­to ac­count.¹⁹

² Lump-sum fund­ing shall be used for the fol­low­ing pur­pose:

a.

edu­ca­tion and train­ing:

1.

in­di­vidu­al tu­tor­ing of learners en­rolled in two-year VET pro­grammes (Art. 18 para. 2),

2.

meas­ures to pre­pare learners for up­per-sec­ond­ary level VET pro­grammes (Art. 12),

3.

VET schools (Art. 21),

4.

branch courses or sim­il­ar third-party train­ing courses (Art. 23),

5.

the pre­par­at­ory course for the FVB Ex­am­in­a­tion (Art. 25),

6.

pre­par­at­ory courses for a fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion or an ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion (Art. 28),

7.

study pro­grammes at pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions (Art. 29),

8.

job-re­lated CET (Art. 30–32),

9.

train­ing events for work­place train­ers (Art. 45),

10.

qual­i­fic­a­tion of vo­ca­tion­al, edu­ca­tion­al and ca­reer guid­ance coun­sel­lors (Art. 50);

b.

the con­duct of ex­am­in­a­tions and oth­er qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures (Art. 40 para. 1) is sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of Art­icle 52 para­graph 3 let­ter c.

The sub­sidies in sup­port of VPET de­vel­op­ment pro­jects un­der Art­icle 4 para­graph 1 and pro­jects that seek to im­prove qual­ity un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 2 shall be provided for a lim­ited dur­a­tion.

¹ Spe­cif­ic activ­it­ies that serve the pub­lic in­terest in­clude the fol­low­ing:

a.

meas­ures to pro­mote true gender equal­ity as well as ac­cess to edu­ca­tion and job-re­lated CET for people with dis­ab­il­it­ies (Art. 3 let. c);

b.

in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ment­a­tion (Art. 5 let. a);

c.

the cre­ation of teach­ing ma­ter­i­als in­ten­ded for lin­guist­ic minor­it­ies (Art. 5 let. b);

d.

meas­ures to im­prove un­der­stand­ing and ex­change between the lin­guist­ic com­munit­ies (Art. 6);

e.

meas­ures in­ten­ded to help dis­ad­vant­aged re­gions and groups (Art. 7);

f.

meas­ures to help young people con­fron­ted with aca­dem­ic, lan­guage or so­cial bar­ri­ers to gain great­er ac­cess to VET pro­grammes (Art. 7);

g

meas­ures to help people to re­main eco­nom­ic­ally act­ive or find new em­ploy­ment (Art. 32 para. 2);

h

sup­port meas­ures de­signed to im­prove the co­ordin­a­tion, trans­par­ency and qual­ity of job-re­lated CET (Art. 32 para. 3);

i.

meas­ures to pro­mote oth­er qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures (Art. 35);

j.

meas­ures de­signed to main­tain and ex­pand the num­ber of avail­able ap­pren­tice­ship po­s­i­tions (Art. 1 para. 1).

² Sub­sidies for pub­lic-in­terest ser­vices shall only be paid if the ser­vices are planned for the long-term, and re­quire par­tic­u­lar fin­an­cial sup­port in or­der to be provided.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may de­cide that oth­er ser­vices in the pub­lic in­terest qual­i­fy for sub­sidies.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the cri­ter­ia for the grant­ing of sub­sidies.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide sub­sidies to pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions wish­ing to con­duct fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tions, ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tions and study pro­grammes at pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may pay per­sons who com­plete a pre­par­at­ory course for a fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion or ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion (Art. 28).

² These sub­sidies may not ex­ceed 50 per cent of eli­gible course fees.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the pre­requis­ites for en­ti­tle­ment to a sub­sidy, the sub­sidy rate and eli­gible course fees.

⁴ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may, at the re­quest of per­sons at­tend­ing a pre­par­at­ory course for a fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion or an ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion, make an ad­vance pay­ment of part of the sub­sidy amount. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­cide on the spe­cif­ic de­tails.

¹ SERI shall main­tain an in­form­a­tion sys­tem en­abling it to check pay­ment of sub­sidies with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 56a and gen­er­ate and ana­lyse cor­res­pond­ing stat­ist­ics.

² It shall pro­cess the fol­low­ing data in the in­form­a­tion sys­tem:

a.

in­form­a­tion to identi­fy re­cip­i­ents of sub­sidies un­der Art­icle 56apara­graphs 1 and 4;

b.

in­form­a­tion to identi­fy per­sons com­plet­ing a pre­par­at­ory course for a fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion or an ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion un­der Art­icle 28;

c.

the na­tion­al in­sur­ance num­ber un­der Art­icle 50c of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 Decem­ber 1946²² on Old-Age and Sur­viv­ors In­sur­ance of the per­sons re­ferred to in let­ters a and b;

d.

in­form­a­tion about the sub­sidy amounts re­ceived in the cases re­ferred to in Art­icle 56apara­graphs 1 and 4;

e.

in­form­a­tion about the pre­par­at­ory courses;

f.

in­form­a­tion about the suc­cess­fully com­pleted fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion or ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tion.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­act pro­vi­sions on the struc­ture and op­er­a­tion of the in­form­a­tion sys­tem and on data se­cur­ity, the dur­a­tion of data stor­age and de­le­tion of data.

⁴ It may com­mis­sion third parties to man­age the in­form­a­tion sys­tem and pro­cess data.

¹ The sub­sidies re­ferred to in Art­icles 53–56 shall only be provided if the activ­it­ies to be fun­ded:

a.

cor­res­pond to ac­tu­al needs;

b.

are prop­erly or­gan­ised;

c.

in­clude ad­equate qual­ity im­prove­ment meas­ures.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may es­tab­lish ad­di­tion­al con­di­tions and re­quire­ments. It shall reg­u­late the cal­cu­la­tion of sub­sidy amounts.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall re­duce ap­proved sub­sidies or with­hold new sub­sidies if the fund­ing re­cip­i­ent ser­i­ously neg­lects or fails to ful­fil his ob­lig­a­tions un­der this Act.

¹ For each multi-year sub­sidy peri­od, the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall is­sue a simple Fed­er­al De­cree to ap­prove the fol­low­ing:

a.

the ex­pendit­ure lim­its for:

1.

the fixed sub­sidies paid to the Can­tons re­ferred to in Art­icle 53,

2.

the sub­sidies re­ferred to in Art­icle 56 for or­gan­ising fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tions, ad­vanced fed­er­al pro­fes­sion­al ex­am­in­a­tions and study pro­grammes at pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions,

3.

the sub­sidies re­ferred to in Art­icle 56a to per­sons who com­plete a pre­par­at­ory course;

a^bis.²⁴

the de­tails of sub­sidy pay­ments to SFUVET un­der Art­icle 48 para­graph 2;

b.

the guar­an­teed budget for:

1.

sub­sidies re­ferred to in Art­icle 54 for pro­jects that seek to de­vel­op and im­prove the qual­ity of the VPET sys­tem,

2.

sub­sidies re­ferred to in Art­icle 55 for spe­cif­ic activ­it­ies that serve the pub­lic in­terest.

² As a guideline, the Con­fed­er­a­tion’s share of edu­ca­tion fund­ing should be one quarter of pub­lic ex­pendit­ure on the VPET sys­tem un­der this Act. No more than ten per cent of the Con­fed­er­a­tion’s share of the costs shall be al­loc­ated as a sub­sidy un­der Art­icles 54 and 55 for pro­jects and activ­it­ies.

¹ In or­der to pro­mote the VPET sys­tem, pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions re­spons­ible for or­gan­ising VET, pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion, job-re­lated CET and cor­res­pond­ing ex­am­in­a­tions may cre­ate and main­tain their own VPET funds.

² The pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions shall de­scribe the pur­pose of their VPET fund. Spe­cific­ally, the fund should be used to fund the activ­it­ies of com­pan­ies in their branch that carry out train­ing activ­it­ies for spe­cif­ic fields of activ­ity.²⁵

³ At the re­quest of cor­res­pond­ing pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tion, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may de­clare the pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tion’s VPET fund man­dat­ory for all com­pan­ies with­in the giv­en eco­nom­ic branch and re­quire that each com­pany con­trib­ute to the fund. By ana­logy, the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 28 Septem­ber 1956²⁶ on the De­clar­a­tion of Gen­er­al Ap­plic­a­tion of Col­lect­ive Em­ploy­ment Agree­ments also ap­ply.

⁴ In or­der for a fund to qual­i­fy as man­dat­ory, the fol­low­ing con­di­tions must be met:

a.

at least 30% of all of the com­pan­ies rep­res­ent­ing 30% of all em­ploy­ees and learners in the giv­en eco­nom­ic branch already con­trib­ute to the VPET fund;

b.

the pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tion has its own train­ing in­sti­tu­tion;

c.

funds shall only be used for the oc­cu­pa­tions with­in the giv­en eco­nom­ic branch;

d.

funds shall be used for VET and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion ini­ti­at­ives that be­ne­fit all of the com­pan­ies with­in the giv­en eco­nom­ic branch.

⁵ The form and amount of con­tri­bu­tions to the VPET fund shall de­pend on the amount of fund­ing that the mem­bers of the cor­res­pond­ing pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tion con­trib­ute to cov­er VPET costs. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the max­im­um amount for con­tri­bu­tions; this max­im­um amount may vary from one eco­nom­ic branch to an­oth­er.

⁶ Com­pan­ies whose con­tri­bu­tion to VPET costs is already in­cluded in their mem­ber­ship fees to the pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tion or com­pan­ies that are able to demon­strate that they already provide com­men­sur­ate VET, pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion and/or job-re­lated CET courses, shall not be re­quired to make pay­ments in­to the VPET fund that has been de­clared man­dat­ory for all oth­er com­pan­ies with­in the giv­en eco­nom­ic branch.

⁷ SERI shall be re­spons­ible for over­all su­per­vi­sion of man­dat­ory VPET funds. SERI shall is­sue an or­din­ance to reg­u­late the ac­count­ing and audit­ing as­pects of such funds.

¹ The ap­peal au­thor­it­ies are:

a.

a loc­al can­ton­al au­thor­ity se­lec­ted by the Can­ton, for de­cisions reached by the Can­tons or by VET or pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion pro­viders work­ing un­der a con­tract signed with the Can­ton;

b.²⁷

SERI, for de­cisions reached by pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions out­side the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

c. and d.²⁸ …

² All oth­er cases shall be gov­erned by the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on fed­er­al ad­min­is­trat­ive pro­ced­ure.

¹ Any per­son who provides work-based train­ing:

a.

without ob­tain­ing the per­mit re­ferred to in Art­icle 20 para­graph 2;

b.

out­side the frame­work of an ap­pren­tice­ship con­tract (Art. 14);

shall be li­able to a fine.

² In cases where the fault is minor, an of­fi­cial rep­rim­and may be is­sued in­stead.

¹ Any per­son who:

a.

claims to hold a pro­tec­ted title without hav­ing ob­tained passing scores on the re­quired ex­am­in­a­tions or without hav­ing been cer­ti­fied through equi­val­ent qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures;

b.

makes use of a title in a way that im­plies that the per­son ob­tained passing scores on the re­quired ex­am­in­a­tions or has been cer­ti­fied through equi­val­ent qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures;

shall be li­able to a fine.

² The crim­in­al pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 19 Decem­ber 1986²⁹ on Un­fair Com­pet­i­tion are re­served.

The Can­tons shall be re­spons­ible for pro­sec­u­tion.

¹ Un­less oth­er­wise provided by law, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may del­eg­ate the task of is­su­ing reg­u­la­tions to the EAER or SERI.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall con­sult the Can­tons and in­ter­ested pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions be­fore en­act­ing:

a.

im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions;

b.

VET or­din­ances.

⁴ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall en­sure that the Can­tons im­ple­ment this Act.

The Can­tons shall be re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­ing all meas­ures that have not been as­signed to the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Can­tons may del­eg­ate im­ple­ment­a­tion to pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions. These or­gan­isa­tions may charge fees for con­sulta­tion and ser­vices rendered.³⁰

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish cri­ter­ia for the re­cog­ni­tion of for­eign vo­ca­tion­al and pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fic­a­tions that fall with­in the scope of ap­plic­a­tion of this Act.

² Un­der its own au­thor­ity, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may enter in­to in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments in­ten­ded to en­cour­age in­ter­na­tion­al co­oper­a­tion and mo­bil­ity with­in the VET and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion sec­tors.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall cre­ate a Fed­er­al Com­mis­sion for Vo­ca­tion­al and Pro­fes­sion­al Edu­ca­tion and Train­ing (EBBK).

² The EBBK shall be com­posed of no more than 15 rep­res­ent­at­ives chosen from fed­er­al and can­ton­al levels, from pro­fes­sion­al or­gan­isa­tions as well as from aca­dem­ic circles. The Can­tons shall have the right to nom­in­ate three mem­bers.

³ The EBBK shall be run by the State Sec­ret­ary of SERI.

⁴ SERI shall run the EBBK Sec­ret­ari­at.

¹ The EBBK shall carry out the fol­low­ing tasks:

a.

the pro­vi­sion of ad­vice to the Con­fed­er­a­tion on gen­er­al mat­ters re­lat­ing to the VPET sys­tem as well as on mat­ters re­lat­ing to de­vel­op­ment, co­ordin­a­tion and har­mon­isa­tion with gen­er­al edu­ca­tion sec­tor policies;

b.

the as­sess­ment of VPET de­vel­op­ment pro­jects re­ferred to in Art­icle 54, re­quests for fund­ing of spe­cif­ic activ­it­ies that serve the pub­lic in­terest re­ferred to in Art­icle 55, sub­sidies for pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion re­ferred to in Art­icle 56 as well as activ­it­ies re­lat­ing to re­search, stud­ies, pi­lot pro­jects and ser­vices re­lat­ing to the VET, pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion and job-re­lated CET sec­tors re­ferred to in Art­icle 48 para­graph 2 let­ter b.

² The EBBK may also sub­mit its own pro­pos­als and provide grant fund­ing agen­cies with re­com­mend­a­tions on pro­jects un­der as­sess­ment.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall ap­point a Fed­er­al Vo­ca­tion­al Bac­ca­laur­eate Com­mis­sion (FVBC).³¹ The FVBC shall act as an ad­vis­ory body for all mat­ters re­lat­ing to the FVB, par­tic­u­larly the re­cog­ni­tion of qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures.

The re­peal and amend­ment of cur­rent le­gis­la­tion are reg­u­lated in the An­nex.

¹ The ap­plic­able can­ton­al and fed­er­al edu­ca­tion or­din­ances must be amended or re­placed with­in five years of com­mence­ment of this Act.

² Titles that are pro­tec­ted un­der cur­rent le­gis­la­tion shall re­main pro­tec­ted.

³ The im­ple­ment­a­tion of lump-sum fund­ing men­tioned in Art­icle 53 para­graph 2 shall be phased in over a peri­od of four years.

⁴ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall gradu­ally in­crease its sub­sidy over a peri­od of four years un­til this sub­sidy reaches the level es­tab­lished in Art­icle 59 para­graph 2.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the date when this Act comes in­to force.

Com­mence­ment Date: 1 Janu­ary 2004³²