Competitor or complement? Swiss Training Firms’ Perspective on General Education

In knowledge economies, technological advancements have brought about new occupational skill demands. In accommodating these needs, many economies have expanded general education at the cost of vocational education and technical training (VET). This trend also permeates coordination-based economies, wherein firms provide the technical aspect of training (dual VET). Despite rapidly changing skill demands, the well-established collective action among training firms has remained intact. Yet, firms may change their perception of the importance of VET compared to general education, as it reshuffles their dependency on dual VET. In this paper, we explore how the expansion of general education tracks at the upper secondary level, along with firms’ academic requirements and use for higher educated workers, influence firms’ perception of general education at the upper secondary education level as being a competitor to initial dual VET programs. This perception is important as it may affect firms’ motivation to continue providing training and their broader adaptation to institutional change. Combining novel survey data with federal educational statistics, we show that a firm’s regional exposure to general education expansion at the upper secondary level has no significant effect on firms’ view of general education as a competitor. However, firms’ academic requirements and their need and use also for higher (general) educated workers better explain the outcome.