Swiss welcome apprenticeship recommendation at labour conference

Guy Parmelin delivers a speech during a plenary session of the 111th International Labor Conference on Tuesday Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi

Switzerland has welcomed a new recommendation for quality apprenticeships, unveiled at the annual conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva. However, Economics Minister Guy Parmelin said that no country could “export” its system.

Switzerland is regularly praised by other countries for its dual training approach. Some governments have even sent ministers to find out more.

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But “it is an illusion to think that one can export one’s own apprenticeship system”, Parmelin told the delegates at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva on Tuesday. “The framework conditions established in each country differ. As do the relationships between the social partners.”

The recommendation should provide guidance for each government, which will be able to adapt it to the situation in its own country. Among its many provisions, it calls for quality apprenticeships to be placed at the heart of labour policies and for a regulatory framework to be established and applied by the social partners. Apprentices must be adequately remunerated and supported by social protection.

More broadly, Parmelin felt that changes in the world of work must honour economic, social and environmental standards. Switzerland is working for decent jobs in its economic partnerships with other countries, he said.

Representatives of governments, employers and trade unions from the ILO’s 187 members are meeting in Geneva until Friday for the organisation’s 111^th annual conference. On Wednesday Alain Berset, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, is due to open a two-day summit attended by almost 20 heads of state and government.