Social origin and access to upper secondary education in Switzerland: a comparison of company-based apprenticeship and exclusively school-based programmes

Abstract

When making the transition from compulsory school to upper secondary education and
training, young people in Switzerland have two main options: company-based apprenticeships
or exclusively school-based programmes. Based on Bourdieu, we assume that schools and
training firms each have their own particular selection procedures. We expect these different
procedures to change the patterns of the influence of social origin on transition – even
when controlling school achievement. We test our assumptions by applying event history
analyses to Switzerland’s first nationwide longitudinal survey of young people (TREE). As
expected, cultural capital of the family of origin is highly relevant for access to school-based
programmes, whereas economic capital favours the entry into apprenticeships.