Becoming a training provider

Almost all companies can train apprentices. How do you become a training provider?

Conditions to be met

To become a training provider, a company must satisfy the following conditions:

Management and employees are motivated to train apprentices.
The company has enough areas of activity for apprentices to be able to acquire the skills defined in the Order on Training and be allocated to productive tasks.
An employee has a federal certificate of competence (CFC) for the profession in question and has completed the course for trainers.

The cantonal vocational training office checks whether the required conditions have all been met. Where applicable, it grants authorization to train apprentices. The cantonal vocational training office and the relevant umbrella organization are available to training providers for any queries regarding initial vocational training (Bildung von Berufsbildner/innen in Lehrbetrieben (only in German)).

Finding apprentices

Once companies have received authorization to train from their canton, they can advertise apprenticeships using their own channels of communication or through their canton's apprenticeship scheme. To post an advertisement using this scheme, which is free, companies need to go through the cantonal vocational training offices. Apprenticeships are posted on the website orientation.ch (Lehrstellennachweis der Kantone (only in German)).

The selection process then follows. Applicants should be evaluated not only on the basis of their academic results and performance tests, but also the impression they make in the context of an internship placement and during the interview (Auswahl und Einstellung von Lernenden (only in German), Merkblatt: Schnupperlehre (only in German)).