Learning documentation, education report, inter-company courses: the terms of Swiss vocational education, explained briefly and plainly.
The learning documentation is the ongoing record of the work a learner carries out in the training company. Learners keep it themselves, and most training ordinances require it. The company trainer reviews it regularly and discusses it with the learner. In mentro it builds up from the activities and learning journals that learners record.
The learning journal is the reflective part of the learning documentation. Learners write down what they learned, what went well and what they would do differently next time. It adds the learner's own assessment to the plain description of the work.
The education report records at the end of each semester where a learner stands in the company. The company trainer writes it, discusses it in the appraisal meeting and signs it together with the learner. In practice the official SDBB form is used for this. mentro provides it on exactly that form, with the evidence from the semester next to it.
The appraisal meeting is the structured conversation in which trainer and learner go through the education report together. It normally takes place once per semester. It covers the state of the operational competences, conduct in the company and the goals for the next semester.
The SDBB is the cantons' specialist agency for vocational education and training and for career, study and pathway guidance. In French and Italian it is called CSFO. Among other things, it publishes the official forms and guidelines for the education report. These forms are widely used across Switzerland. mentro uses the official SDBB form for the education report.
The training ordinance sets out, for each occupation, how the initial vocational training runs, how long it lasts and how it is completed. The curriculum belongs to it and describes the operational competences in detail. Together they form the binding basis for training in the company. In mentro, the curricula of the available occupations are already mapped.
An operational competence describes what a learner must be able to do in a concrete work situation by the end of the training. The curriculum groups operational competences into areas of competence and specifies them through performance objectives. What counts is not knowledge alone, but acting in practice.
A performance objective describes a single, verifiable achievement within an operational competence. The curriculum formulates separate performance objectives for the company, the vocational school and the inter-company courses. They are the finest level of the curriculum hierarchy and show what is already evidenced and what is still missing.
Inter-company courses teach basic practical skills that a single training company cannot cover in full breadth. They are run by the professional organisations and are mandatory. Together with the company and the vocational school they form the third place of learning in initial vocational training.
Company trainers carry the formal responsibility for training in the company and need a recognised training course for the role. Workplace trainers support the learner in day to day work without carrying that formal responsibility. The exact name of this second role differs from one professional organisation to the next. In many companies the two roles work closely together. In mentro, supervisors are included without limit, whatever their role.
The qualification procedure concludes initial vocational training. It checks whether the learner has reached the operational competences of the curriculum, usually through a practical assignment, written examinations and experience grades. Those who pass receive the Federal VET Diploma. Complete learning documentation is good preparation for it.
The EFZ is the qualification awarded after a three or four year initial vocational training programme. It is recognised throughout Switzerland and opens the way to professional education and, together with the federal vocational baccalaureate, to a university of applied sciences. It should not be confused with the EBA, which concludes the two year programme.
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