Individuals who have acquired their qualifications outside of a regulated education programme and have at least five years of professional experience can complete a qualification process directly.

Individual professions specify the type of professional experience in more detail in their VET ordinances. The SDBB collects information on all occupations as part of the list of occupations for the examination coordinators for the whole of Switzerland.

By being admitted to a qualification process, the cantons can also control which qualification processes are carried out. Cantons admit candidates either to the qualification process with final examination or to another qualification procedure.

Qualification procedure with final examination

The qualification procedure with final examination is governed by the VET ordinance. The final examination usually includes the following qualification areas: practical work, professional knowledge and general education. A performance grade based on practical experience taken from the formal education is usually also taken into account when calculating the overall grade.

If candidates who have acquired their qualifications outside of a regulated course of study are admitted to the qualification process with a final examination, they fall under the “special case” set out in the VET ordinance. This means that, as a rule, the performance grades based on practical experience for these candidates are omitted.

Preparation for the qualification process

Anyone wishing to complete the qualification process without vocational education and training must acquire both vocational and general education knowledge. There are three different variants:

• Attending vocational school together with the apprentices: Classes take place during the day during the week.
• Catch-up training: For some professions in which many adults want to acquire their vocational qualification, there are special training courses, which predominantly take place in the evenings or on Saturdays. Catch-up training is regulated on a profession-specific basis in the VET ordinance for each profession.
• Self-study: Even without attending school, adults can independently prepare for the qualification process using the teaching aids used at vocational schools.

General education

If general education has already been completed in a previous vocational education and training programme, an exemption can be applied for from the canton.

Other qualification processes

If the qualification process with a final examination defined in the VET ordinance is not carried out, this is referred to as a different qualification process. This must be equivalent to the qualification process with final examination set out in the VET ordinance and guarantee that the professional competencies are checked in accordance with the VET ordinance. Examples of other qualification processes are the validation of educational attainment or the split examination, but other configurations are also possible.

Qualification process with validation of educational attainment

In the qualification process involving the validation of educational attainment, candidates demonstrate, through documentation provided in a dossier, that they possess the required professional competencies and meet the standards for general education. It is a multi-stage validation process:

• Application and dossier: Following admission to the qualification process with validation of educational attainment, the candidate submits a dossier to the responsible office together with the request for validation in which the required educational attainment is documented. Educational attainment may be gained through professional or non-professional practical experience and professional or general education.
• Evaluation: The educational attainment documented in the dossier is assessed and then discussed with the candidates in an appraisal interview. In the event of uncertainty as to the validity of the dossier and the appraisal interview, additional verification methods may be used in individual cases. The results of the appraisal are recorded in the appraisal report.
• Validation: The cantonal examination authority decides on the validation of the professional competencies and the requirements of general education on the basis of the appraisal report provided by the experts. They are marked “fulfilled” or “not fulfilled” in a learning performance certificate. Those who have successfully completed the qualification process receive the Federal VET Diploma or the Federal VET Certificate.

Anyone who has failed the qualification process will receive a recommendation along with the learning performance certificate on how to fill any gaps. However, it is up to the candidates to decide how they want to fill the gaps.

After an initial unsuccessful qualification process, the application for the validation of educational attainments can be resubmitted a maximum of two times. The professional competencies and general education requirements fulfilled according to the learning performance certificates are credited and not reassessed.

Validation of educational attainment is open to those professions in which the sponsoring body has drawn up corresponding regulations and implementing provisions that have been recognised by SERI.

Qualification process with split examination

In the qualification process with split examination, the professional competencies acquired during vocational education and training are distributed over several examinations. These can be carried out, for example, in connection with a modular education at the end of each module. Specific pass requirements must be defined for this purpose. If the candidate meets these requirements, the Federal VET Diploma or the VET Certificate will be issued. The split examination is open to those professions for which the sponsoring body has drawn up corresponding regulations and implementing provisions that have been recognised by SERI.