Greater visibility for professional education

How significant is professional education?

Rémy Hübschi: Professional education opens up excellent career prospects. It is geared towards the needs of the labour market and prepares candidates for challenging specialist or managerial roles. The training is competence- and labour market-oriented. Particular emphasis is placed on applied learning, the rapid implementation of new expertise and a high pace of innovation. Particular emphasis is placed on applied learning, the rapid implementation of new expertise and a high pace of innovation. In this way, the professional education sector provides the highly specialised Swiss economy with qualified skilled workers. Every year, around 27,500 people obtain a professional qualification.

What is the aim of the support package?

Professional qualifications are well known and highly regarded within the relevant sectors. However, it is not always easy for outsiders to recognise their value. A comparison of tertiary-level qualification figures shows that, in recent years, the number of higher education qualifications has risen more sharply than the number of professional qualifications. Furthermore, it is apparent that young people and their parents tend to regard the general education to higher education pathway as more desirable than the VET to professional education pathway. With this support package, we aim to further enhance the visibility, clarity and positioning of these qualifications. This includes making it easier to classify the qualifications both domestically and in an international context.

What specifically has changed since 1 October 2026?

One key change is the introduction of the new title add-ons ‘Professional Bachelor’ and ‘Professional Master’. Anyone who completes a federal examination for a Federal Diploma of Professional Education, or completes a study programme at a college of professional education will in the future be able to use the add-on ‘Professional Bachelor'. For federal examinations leading to an Advanced Federal Diploma of Professional Education, the title add-on is ‘Professional Master'.

Do these title add-ons only apply to future graduates?

No. All holders of a professional qualification may now use the relevant title add-on, regardless of when they obtained their qualification. It is important to note, however, that the title add-on may only be used in conjunction with the legally protected qualification title. The add-on in question appears after the qualification title, separated by a comma. For example: ‘dipl. social pedagogue HF, Professional Bachelor'.