You have practised a trade for years without holding the corresponding Swiss qualification. Validation makes it possible to have competences acquired in practice officially recognised, in certain professions and certain cantons only.
Reply within two working days, in writing.
Rather than following an entire vocational programme and sitting its final examination, the candidate demonstrates through a file that they already hold the required competences.
A qualification procedure for adults who have acquired, notably through their professional experience, the competences corresponding to an initial vocational programme. The file connects what you have learned in the field with the requirements of the profession you are aiming at. Where every requirement is met, the procedure may lead to a Federal VET Diploma (CFC) or a Federal VET Certificate (AFP).
Validation belongs to the “other qualification procedures” provided for by federal law. It is therefore not a mere confirmation of professional experience: it is a legal route that leads, where the conditions are met, to a federal qualification. It formally begins with the filing of the dossier and ends with the decision of the examining authority.
This question determines everything else, and it is settled before you commit to anything.
Initial vocational programmes for which validation is regulated, out of all existing programmes.
The only cantons that offer the procedure today.
Qualifications issued by this route, overwhelmingly in health, social care and commercial trades.
Geneva alone issues more than half of the qualifications obtained by this route. Ticino does not offer the procedure.
Validation has taken hold in health and social care and in the commercial trades: about 600 of the 650 annual qualifications are issued there. The list moves with the regulations approved by SERI.
Check your trade in the official list of initial vocational programmes, which flags those with another qualification procedure, and on the SERI page on validation.
Where qualifications have been acquired outside a regulated training programme, the ordinance requires at least five years of professional experience for admission to the qualification procedure. That is the threshold set by federal law.
Beyond that federal threshold, each profession and each canton set their own conditions: how much of the experience must be in the target trade, general education requirements, compulsory information session. They are to be checked with the cantonal authority before a file is started.
Checking the conditions of admission and attending the information session where the canton provides one.
Identifying the competences acquired and setting them against the requirements of the qualification profile.
Documenting the competences with evidence: employment references, confirmations of employment, job descriptions, work produced.
The authority examines the competences demonstrated. Where some are missing, further training may be required.
Where every requirement is met, the procedure leads to the corresponding Federal VET Diploma or Certificate.
Validation is a cantonal procedure: the practical arrangements, the timelines and the fees vary with the profession and the canton, and must be checked with the competent authority at the time of filing.
A validation file is not a list of jobs and years. Competences must be demonstrated and set against the precise requirements of the qualification profile. That is the stage where we come in.
We examine your experience, your roles, your training and the competences you have drawn from them.
We bring out the competences that matter for the qualification profile of the profession you are aiming at.
We organise the information and the evidence so that your prior learning is presented clearly, completely and coherently.
We look with you for the proof that concretely demonstrates what you can do.
We tell you what is insufficiently documented and which further evidence would help.
We prepare the file for transmission to the competent cantonal authority.
The file may gather employment references, confirmations of employment, job descriptions, training certificates, professional documents and examples of work produced. It is built around the qualification profile of the profession and the applicable general education requirements.
We issue neither Diploma nor Certificate and take no validation decision. That belongs to the competent cantonal authority within the official procedure. Our service consists in preparing and building your file: we cannot guarantee that the qualification will be granted.
With File preparation, we hand you the file ready to submit; filing and dealings with the authority remain yours. With the Full mandate, we take on the filing, the correspondence and the follow-up until the decision.
See the services and amountsAn authority compares your foreign qualification with the corresponding Swiss one and issues a decision. It is a procedure entirely distinct from validation.
See recognition of qualificationsYou are not asking for an existing qualification to be recognised: you are asking for a Swiss qualification to be issued in view of the competences your career has produced.
Check my situationInitial vocational education may also be acquired through non-formal learning, completed by a qualification procedure.
Defines the “other qualification procedures”, the category to which validation belongs.
Sets the condition of admission of at least five years of professional experience.
Federal Act of 13 December 2002 on Vocational and Professional Education and Training and the Ordinance of 19 November 2003. The texts in force at the time of your steps prevail.
Tell us your trade, your canton and your years of practice. We will tell you whether validation is open to you, before any paid service.
Reply within two working days, in writing.