When our U.S. Delegation traveled to Switzerland to study youth apprenticeships, we expected to learn about training systems, school partnerships, and labor-market strategy. What we didn’t expect was how often the conversation would turn to parents.
At every site visit, Swiss colleagues emphasized their central role. From the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, to Zurich’s Career Center and the city’s Mothers and Fathers Counseling offices, parents were described as essential partners in helping young people explore their strengths, consider their options, and make early career decisions.
In Switzerland, career conversations don’t start in high school, they start in childhood. And they’re less about narrowing options, and more about opening and exploring them earlier. Parents, schools, and employers all share responsibility for helping young people grow into confident, skilled, and adaptable adults.
For parents in the U.S., understanding how this works offers valuable lessons and a hopeful reminder that career readiness is not a race or a test. It’s a relationship.

The Swiss Secret: A System That Starts with Families

Seventy percent of Swiss youth choose apprenticeships which are paid, career-aligned jobs that blend classroom learning with real work experiences. These pathways begin around ages 14-16, yet the process of discovering interests starts much earlier.
At Zurich’s Career Center, children as young as elementary age engage in guided self-exploration. They complete interest inventories, visit interactive workstations, and even use life-size augmented-reality screens that show their own faces in professional roles such as veterinarian, chef, engineer, childcare teacher and social worker. Each child can literally see themselves in future possibilities.
What makes this system work isn’t only technology or funding, its trust. Parents trust that the system will offer options that lead to good lives. Schools trust families as partners in career development. And communities trust young people with real responsibility.
That family engagement begins before school. Through Zurich’s Mothers and Fathers Counseling program, families can access prenatal and early-childhood guidance, home visits, and parenting classes with no stigma attached. Counselors, often nurses or social workers, help parents understand development milestones, connect to child care, and build healthy routines. It’s a model of universal prevention. When families thrive, children are better prepared to learn, more self-aware and confident, and more resilient. We saw young people who took pride in their apprenticeship, recognized they were making a meaningful contribution in their place of employment, and they were genuinely supported by the adults around them – at home, in the community, and in the workplace too.

Career Conversations as a Family Habit

Swiss parents are expected to talk early and often about careers, even if they don’t know every detail. Career counseling is a cooperative model that includes the student, school, parent(s), and local businesses.

The process is simple yet profound.

1. I get to know myself.
2. I explore the professional world.
3. I compare.
4. I decide.
5. I take action.

There is a psychology to these five steps, used by Swiss career counselors with eighth and ninth graders, to show that readiness isn’t just about grades. It’s about curiosity, reflection, and agency. Parents are part of every step, asking questions and listening.
For U.S. families, that means shifting from “What do you want to be when you grow up? To “What kinds of problems do you like solving? Or “What environments make you feel most alive?”
Families can also normalize exploration: visit workplaces, talk to neighbors about their jobs, or volunteer together. These mirror Switzerland’s Sniffing Days, when youth visit employers to try out a career for a day.

Breaking the Stigma Around Vocational Pathways

One of the most eye-opening lessons from Switzerland is that vocational education is valued. It’s not a “lesser path.” It’s simply one of many.
In the U.S., parents often hear a single message: college is the goal. But in Switzerland, students and families can choose either an apprenticeship or an academic track, and both can lead to university later. The system is permeable and there are no dead ends. A young person who completes an apprenticeship can later pursue university studies or a new apprenticeship field with ease.
Apprenticeships provide credentials, income, and, even more important, skills like communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. They also build resilience. Apprenticeship graduates are more adaptable when changing careers later in life. (continued on next page)
For parents, that’s an encouraging message. Supporting vocational learning in high school does not “lock” a child into a single path. It opens doors to work, to higher education, and to confidence.

Building Pathways Even When Apprenticeships Don’t Exist Yet

Most U.S. communities don’t yet have youth-apprenticeship structures like Switzerland’s, but families can still prepare children for real-world learning.

Ask your child’s school:

How are students exposed to local careers and industries?
Does the district partner with employers or community colleges?
Are work-based learning or dual-enrollment options available?

Look beyond school walls:

Explore local “career days,” STEM fairs, and maker events.
Encourage part-time jobs, service projects, or entrepreneurial experiments.
Visit community colleges or technical campuses on open-house days.

Preparedness isn’t only about emergency kits or finance. It includes helping our children prepare for the future of work.

A Parent’s Role in System Change

As promising as individual actions are, real transformation requires systems that honor family and youth voices. That’s where our collaborative work continues.
Parents and youth are not just stakeholders, they are co-designers. Their lived experiences shape the essential questions:
How do we create pathways that work for all students, not only the college-bound?
How can local employers and hospitals partner with schools to offer meaningful apprenticeships?
How do we ensure every child regardless of zip code has a chance to explore, learn, and earn?

These conversations depend on collaboration and courage to rethink old assumptions, but also on the steady, compassionate voices of parents who believe their children deserve real options. When parents have a seat at the table, systems become smarter, more humane, and more responsive. The path ahead is not about copying Switzerland’s model. It’s about recognizing that success in career and life grows from an integrated system that starts at birth and includes family and student voice. As members of the U.S. Delegation, we are committed to carrying these lessons forward to strengthen how our own communities prepare young people for purposeful, connected futures. ❦

About the Authors

Melanie Upright serves as Research Program Administrator for Leadership and Educational Impact at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education, where she leads the Dynamic Impact: Team-Directed Continuous Improvement initiative supporting high-performing teams across education systems.

Natalie Branosky is the Chief Executive of The New Possible/International Knowledge Exchange, leading global partnerships that promote inclusive workforce systems and apprenticeship innovation.

Deborah Roderick Stark is the founder of Deborah Stark & Associates and a national expert in early childhood policy, family engagement, and maternal-child health.

Together, the authors served on the July 2025 U.S. Delegation to Switzerland studying apprenticeship innovations in health and social care, launching the Swiss – U.S. Health Ecosystem.

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