Education & Skilled Workforce

Ongoing digitalisation presents the Swiss education system with serious challenges. It needs to develop in an agile and innovative direction in order to ensure the population’s labour market ability. The Education & Skilled Workforce committee of digitalswitzerland boosts awareness of new technologies, and their effects on the economy and society, through education policy discourses and campaigns. Lifelong learning, computational thinking and the importance of STEM education are promoted at all age levels and for all sectors of the economy. The aim is to increase the number of young professionals and expand the supply of skilled workers.

digitalswitzerland is the main patron of the national organisation of the world of work, ICT-Vocational Training Switzerland (Vocational Education and Training Law Art. 1). With this support, ICT-Vocational Training Switzerland promotes the offer in the field of vocational education and training, especially in sustainable professions and specialisations, according to the law.

The number of employees in the ICT sector is growing four times as fast as in the economy as a whole. There is already an acute shortage of skilled workers, which will become even more serious in the future (see the current study on skilled workers). In order to ensure the supply of skilled workers, digitalswitzerland identifies a strong need for action.

The committee combines strengths, education policy discourses and campaigns to increase awareness of new technologies and their effects on the economy and society. With this in mind, the importance of lifelong learning, computational thinking and the significance of STEM education for all sectors of the economy is promoted for all ages. To support this, the committee has formulated political priorities for both the labour market and the education sector.

digitalswitzerland’s Boost programme, supported by the Hirschmann Foundation, the Gebert Rüf Foundation and UBS, is designed to promote the acquisition of digital skills by Swiss workers through co-financing under certain conditions. With this programme, we wish to contribute to upskilling employees so that they can seize opportunities within the current situation.

The working world is in the midst of a transformation. Digitalisation is boosting the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines for professions in a wide range of sectors. Women are vastly underrepresented in STEM fields today. For this reason, digitalswitzerland calls on politicians, the educational system, business and society to create fair and attractive conditions for women in IT. It is crucial for society and for Switzerland as a business location that women are also well equipped to sieze the opportunities presented by the transformation.

The demand for a modern and flexible labour law is extremely relevant for Switzerland’s attractiveness as a business location in the context of an increasingly digital world of work. digitalswitzerland is part of the alliance ‘allianz denkplatz schweiz’, which advocates for the modernisation of working time models along with other topics.

It is important to encourage and support organisations and employees to think about #lifelonglearning and career planning at all levels. Our website explore.lifelonglearning offers key insights and guiding questions. Check out videos and 100 testimonials about #LifelongLearning.

All that’s left to do is choose which courses to sign up to on weiterbildung.swiss. The opportunity to take your next career steps is waiting for you!

Switzerland’s innovative strength and attraction as a business location faces uncertainty without enough young talent in the STEM sector. The STEM campaign, co-initiated by digitalswitzerland and Pro Juventute, aims to inspire and motivate our youth to follow career paths in STEM, to keep Switzerland competitive and help solve major problems the world faces today.

«nextgeneration» initiative supports digital education offerings primarily for children and adolescents to foster curiosity and build fundamental skills early in life. Our role is to connect these existing platforms and provide reach and publicity via our channels and network.

The Sea of Lifelong Learning is a collection of insights from dozens of employers participating in the #LifelongLearning campaign by digitalswitzerland and the Swiss Employers’ Association (SAV). digitalswitzerland aggregated key learning, trends and guiding questions that help HR professionals and business leaders explore and navigate the vast sea that is lifelong learning.

The commitment of employers to further training in Switzerland is an important success factor in enabling lifelong learning for employees. The #LifelongLearning Pledge is a promise by companies in Switzerland to make an effective and sustainable commitment to lifelong learning for all their employees.

As in other sectors, digitalisation and the ageing of society will be the drivers for the decline in labour market supply. The ageing of society means that an increasingly large proportion of the population is no longer available as a workforce. The overarching goal of the study is to capture the skilled labour potential of the 58 – 70 age cohort in ICT as well as the opportunities to activate that group.

Publication in brief.