Pre-Apprenticeship for Refugees in Switzerland

This paper explores a new pre-vocational programme (Integrationsvorlehre, INVOL) that aims to prepare refugees and temporarily admitted persons aged 16 to 35 for an apprenticeship. Using a sample of 552 INVOL-participants, it was tested whether situational (workplace and school characteristics) and individual resources (language proficiency at the beginning of the INVOL, self-efficacy, and persistency) predict participants’ learning outcomes at the end of the programme. We found that workplace resources were related to participants practical and transferable competencies, while school-related resources and language skills predicted language proficiency levels at the end of the programme. Self-efficacy and persistency were not related to learning outcomes. Overall, the programme seems to contribute successfully to refugees’ competence development and preparation for subsequent VET programmes; however, learning across the boundaries of workplaces and schools needs to be strengthened.