The Second International Congress on Vocational Education and Training was held June 21-23 in Winterthur, Switzerland.
The congress, whose aim was to promote the Swiss vocational education and training system internationally and expand the existing network, was opened by the country's president, Johann Schneider-Ammann.
In his speech, Mr. Schneider-Ammann introduced the congress's motto, "From Skills to Prosperity by Sharing the Basics of Success," to the audience of 450 delegates. He spoke on the topic "Educational community that benefits us all".
The main purpose of the reports, workshops and panel discussions was to exchange ideas and experiences.
Examples of successful vocational education and training projects in Sweden, Serbia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Gabon, Bulgaria and Switzerland were presented.
The focus of this year's congress was apprenticeship and its organizing theme.
The first was the presentation of the experience of Marcel Pavlicek, CEO of Burkhard Compression, and Sesiprefa Kremer, an apprentice at the Swiss bank UBS.
The second was the "Skills Town" opened at the congress, where visitors could directly get acquainted with the projects and works carried out by the apprentices, which gave an opportunity to get an overview of the dual system of vocational education and training.
The discussions held at the Congress enabled a large number of visitors to familiarize themselves with various fields and tools of professional education and training.
The Congress also showed how diverse and complex VET systems are, even though challenges such as digitization and globalization affect all countries.
450 participants from 80 countries took part in the Congress.
The Third International Congress on Vocational Education and Training will be held in 2018.
