MEM Passerelle 4.0

It is nothing new that people change or have to change their profession in the course of their career. Already today, 59 percent of employees no longer work in the occupational field in which they completed their initial training. However, Hans Hess, President of the Swissmem industry association, repeatedly points out in his speeches that occupational mobility to date has major shortcomings.

"Firstly, the change to a new profession sometimes takes place over a period of unemployment. This puts a strain on the social security system. And secondly, the path often leads from a qualified job to a job that requires a lower level of qualification - for example, when a trained cheesemaker switches to an unskilled job in industry." People would often find themselves at a dead end as a result of the career change.

Further development in the new occupation is hardly possible because they do not have the necessary qualifications. This means that a lot of the experience and potential of the employees remains unused. Today's occupational mobility thus produces too many losers and is a burden on social insurances. Swissmem would like to counter this situation with a retraining programme.

Problem of shortage of skilled workers
Since 2018, Swissmem has been presenting a retraining model that should make it easier to switch to a new occupational field in the future. At the same time, it is intended to contribute to the best possible use of the potential of skilled workers in Switzerland. The Swissmem model comprises six steps that can be individually combined and designed:

The most important key values of the MEM- Passerelle 4.0 are:

• Retraining is designed to enable radical career changes at all levels of employment and age.
• The personal qualification level is to be maintained or increased with the retraining.
• The retraining is adult-oriented.
• Job mobility must be managed by the labour market.
• The educational measures are limited to the absolutely
• The retraining must lead to a formal qualification.

Structural and skills change
Per se, the Swiss training system presents obstacles when someone with an initial training is looking for new work between occupational fields. In other words, career changers have a hard time. However, due to the accelerated structural and qualification change, employees will be forced more and more in the future to fundamentally reorient themselves professionally, i.e. to change their occupation and occupational field.

This is where the Swissmem model comes in. It focuses on people who are already qualified and whose jobs are threatened by structural change. They should be given the opportunity to establish themselves in a new occupational field at least at the same level of qualification by means of a second apprenticeship. This is not simply a matter of completing another conventional apprenticeship.

The model is aimed at employees with a vocational qualification as well as at people with a tertiary qualification. It enables adults to complete a second training course with a corresponding qualification, taking into account and recognising the skills they already have. It builds the bridge for a sustainable change to a new occupational field.

Of course, this model raises some important questions: How should the retraining be financed? What is the level of acceptance among employers and employees? And what organizational hurdles must be overcome with regard to implementation? Further information on the retraining model is available from Rolf Kaufmann, Project Manager MEM-Passerelle 4.0: