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More young refugees in Switzerland following vocational training

A male apprentice at Swiss Post
In 2019, Swiss authorities set a goal of getting two-thirds of young refugees and temporarily admitted persons into a training programme within five years of their arrival. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

More than half of young refugees and temporarily admitted persons between the ages of 16 and 25 are now in training. This is significantly more than five years ago.

In addition, young mothers are the least likely to start an apprenticeship, according to new data published by the Federal Statistical Office on Monday.

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Specifically, 52% of 16-25 year-olds who arrived in Switzerland in 2017 completed post-compulsory education within five years. This figure was only 37% for those who arrived in 2012.

However, there is a large gender gap: while only 34% of young women who arrived in 2015 began training, the figure for men was 54%. “Parenthood is likely to be an important reason for this difference between the sexes,” writes the statistical office.

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When the Swiss integration agenda came into force in 2019, the federal government and cantons set themselves the goal of ensuring that two-thirds of refugees and temporarily admitted persons in the aforementioned age group complete an apprenticeship within five years of entering the country, says the statistical office. The new analysis now presents a detailed picture of the situation for the first time.

Translated from German with DeepL/gw

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