The Swiss vocational education and training (VET) system is held in high regard by other
countries. Young skilled workers from Switzerland consistently secure top marks at world
skills competitions. But how has the social status of VET developed relative to that of
baccalaureate schools? What changes can be ascertained in the various parts of the country
and population groups? We have been able to answer these and other questions thanks to
a new measurement.

This paper analyses how the social status of vocational education and training (VET) in
Switzerland has changed over time and how it differs across population groups. The applied
measure for the social status of VET compares the cognitive abilities (measured by PISA
scores) of prospective students in a VET programme to those in an academic baccalaureate
programme. The results suggest that the social status of VET has remained constant
between 2000 and 2012. The social status of VET is higher for women than for men, in rural …