The Cost and Benefit of Apprenticeship Training: The Swiss Case

By Stefan C. Wolter and Jürg Schweri

Abstract

This article analyses the initial results of a questionnaire sent to apprenticeship training firms on the costs and benefits associated with this type of training in Switzerland. The results show that the net cost of such training does not always exhibit the same pattern for all firms. Larger companies in particular show a higher net cost by the end of the apprenticeship. But in addition to the net cost that arises during the apprenticeship, there is also a benefit for the firm should it retain its graduated apprentices as employees, and this benefit is also significantly higher at large training firms. The article goes on to discuss the influence that the firms' varying cost benefit structures has on both the apprenticeship ratio and the probability that the firm will retain its graduated apprentices as employees.

JEL classification: J24, J31, J44
Keywords: apprenticeship training, retention rate, apprenticeship ratio, cost-benefit analysis
AEQ 3-4, 2002: 347–367

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