As industry body Swissolar announced on Wednesday, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) is expected to issue definitive training regulations no later than October 1, 2023, and no later than January 1, 2024. In November 2022, SERI gave the green light to new job descriptions. They were developed by Swissolar, the Polybau training center and around 20 industry representatives.
As the press release continues, future solar installers and installers will be trained at the Polybau training centers in Uzwil SG and Les Paccots FR. The launch of these apprenticeships is an important step “to meet the great need for skilled workers in the rapidly growing Swiss solar industry in the long term and to further professionalisation”.
The federal professional certification “Solar installer: at the EBA” is completed after two years of training, the federal qualification certification “Solar installer: at the EFZ” can be obtained after three years of training.
The next step is industry consultation on the draft of training plans. It will run until the end of January 2023. Then SERI will review the submitted documents and prepare for concrete implementation.
According to the information, this includes the definition of learning objectives for the vocational college, the creation of the program and content of in-company courses, the task for the qualification process and the definition of the training program for training companies.
As soon as the definitive training regulation comes into force, apprenticeship contracts can be concluded. The first apprentices will start their training from August 2024 in the 2024/25 school year. Companies wishing to train apprentices must obtain a training permit from their own canton.
The Swiss solar industry currently offers around 10,000 full-time positions. According to Swissolar, this number should more than double by 2050.
(SDA)