Pitfalls along the route to competence-oriented examinations

The aim of the 2004 Berufsbildungsgesetz [Vocational Training Act] was to facilitate a greater diversity of forms in Swiss vocational education and training in order to examine the employability skills of the trainees. Although it proved possible to generate impetuses for developments, some of these failed to come to fruition because of their ambiguity and the underlying competence concept. This article looks at where ambitious pedagogical concepts are genuinely determining and leaving their mark on the examination structure and also investigates the areas in which they are descending into empty legitimising formulae under the pressure of administrative, financial or institutional interests.