my son, who is a CH citizen, is currently in the UK sitting his GCSE exams at boarding school and will most likely stay there and do his A-Levels. The plan is he will come back to CH and either go to university, or his other idea is to do a lehr instead.
As far as i know, even though he will have completed most of his secondary schooling in the UK, he can still apply for a lehr here? he would be 18 going on 19 when he returns.
He grew up here in CH, went through kindergarten, and up until and finished the 6th class before going to boarding school in the UK for a year, came back to Zürich for a year at a bilingual school (english & german), then back to boarding school in the UK.
he speaks Swiss & high german pretty fluently however his written german will need a bit of work though.
i understood that if he contacts the Berufsberatung they can help him with applying and getting on a lehr?
not sure if anyone else has experience in this situation where perhaps teenage children have completed secondary schooling elsewhere but came back to CH for their lehr. would be good to hear about the process and how simple / hard it was...
There should be no issue- but it would be a good idea for him to have German lessons to ensure is writing is up to scratch. Has he made his choice of A'Levels- could he add German?
Yes he could do and that's a really good idea. he did his German GCSE in year 7 which to be honest was ridiculously easy so doing German a-level would help get his writing kick started. He skipped German lessons at school as it was too easy and his German was better than the teachers..
yes, it is very common nowadays for people to start Lehre/apprentissage much later than the previous usual of 15- and for many people to do several, with gaps in between.
He should have no problem with the courses but pretty much all the 'good' ones starting after summer in 2022 will be gone already. There are always plenty left but they're more .. um.. 'hands on'.
Yep. to the OP.. make sure he's applying around 14 to 16 months prior to start date for a place in one of the more 'blue chip' companies.
(Having said that.. I know lots of roles in the big firms aren't 'that good'.. there's a happy medium somewhere in the smaller but growing companies.. at least in Tech/Finance/Life Science)
Never underestimate the helpfulness of having a trained butcher, painter... in the family. Anyway, the apprenticeship doesn't lock you into that trade. I've mentioned several times a guy who did a finance apprenticeship at a local multinational, and now is a social worker.
Realistically if his German is not up to C1/C2 college is going to be a struggle at best. One of my neighbors kids did something similar, but returning from Italy and it did not work out. She dropped out middle of the second year and went back to Italy to attend college.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with hands on. Give me a master-craftsman /woman/ person...who has served an apprenticeship than an academic desk-jockey any day of the week.
Just a reminder to check the combination of A Levels/GCSE's selected meets the requirements for Swiss university, if you want to keep that option open. eg required grades for A Level of BBC and one must be in maths/science. Also a first and second language must have been studied to GCSE/AS/A Level in the last 3 years of school.
you'll be surprised how many degrees in CH now are offered in English... but yes I agree. he's at that age where I think a lehr would be ideal for him to get some practical experience under his belt having never worked a job in his life, unlike us more mature folks who did paper rounds at 13 and worked Saturdays of all places in a butchers shop. I hated cleaning that block...
yes I agree. he comes back here every holiday and speaks with his Swiss friends over the xbox playing (I know!) Fortnite every weekend. drives me mad but I think well at least he's keeping his Swiss German going. sadly most of it is swearing