The companies which offer the most apprenticeships

Learning a job through an apprenticeship is given equal weighting to more academic training in the Swiss education system. Thanks to companies offering placements for them, the young trainees gain valuable experience about what their future job actually entails, while also attending college on certain days of the week.

The bildxzug training establishment offered most places to apprentices with as many as 146 on its roll, mainly in the areas of commerce and IT.

Not far behind, in second place, was the Building Technologies Division of Siemens (Switzerland), which offered 142 young people the opportunity of qualifying as electronic technicians and design engineers, to name just two out of many areas.

In third place was Roche Diagnostics, which provided 132 young people with the opportunity to qualify in a wide number of roles, including laboratory technicians, and surprisingly, cooks.

The Zug Cantonal Hospital helped train 123 young people in a number of healthcare-related jobs, such as dietary chefs, in addition to logistics and electrical fields.

Those wanting to be multi-skilled mechanics and design engineers were among the 81 apprenticeships on offer at the Metall Zug company, which manufactures household appliances under the V-Zug brand, as well as its involvement in infection control, wire processing and medical devices.

The widest range of apprenticeships was offered by the Bildungsnetz Zug training establishment, where 80 places were provided for young people to train in as many as 36 different professions including baker, dental assistant, gardener, motorcycle mechanic and podiatrist (the medical care of feet), to mention just six.

45 youngsters were able to train as specialists in retail, logistics and customer-care at the Coop cooperative, with a further 37 in similar placements at Migros.

The Zug Old People’s Centres’ Foundation provided a further 39 placements for young people wanting to work in the areas of healthcare and home economics, while 34 were able to train for a wide number of professions in the automotive trade at the AMAG Automobil-und Motorenwerke company in Cham.

Lots more companies not included in this list help youngsters by offering apprenticeships, enabling them to pick up skills from professionals and benefit from individual support and guidance when challenges arise.