Switzerland has an apprenticeship similarly to Germany and Austria. The educational system is ternar, which is basically dual education system with mandatory practical courses. The length of an apprenticeship can be 2, 3 or 4 years.
# Length
Apprenticeships with a length of 2 years are for persons with weaker school results. The certificate awarded after successfully completing a 2-year apprenticeship is called "Eidgenössisches Berufsattest" (EBA) in German and "Certificato federale di formazione pratica" (CFP) in Italian.
Apprenticeship with a length of 3 or 4 years are the most common ones. The certificate awarded after successfully completing a 3 or 4-year apprenticeship is called "Certificat Fédérale de Capacité" (CFC (:fr:Certificat fédéral de capacité)), "Eidgenössisches Fähigkeitszeugnis" (EFZ) or "Attestato federale di capacità" (AFC).
Some crafts like Electrician are educated in lengths of 3 and 4 years. In this case, an Electrician with 4 years apprenticeship gets more theoretical background than one with 3 years apprenticeship. Also, but that is easily lost in translation, the profession has a different name.
Each of the over 300 nationwide defined vocational profiles has defined framework - conditions as length of education, theoretical and practical learning goals and certification conditions.
# Age of the apprentices
Typically an apprenticeship is started at age of 15 and 18 after finishing general education. Some apprenticeships have a recommend or required age of 18, which obviously leads to a higher average age. There is formally no maximum age, however, for persons above 21 it is hard to find a company due to companies preferring younger ages due to the lower cost of labour.