Honors and Awards

Research and development

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Vigener Prize for outstanding doctoral theses
15.11.2021

Dr. Patric Raemy was awarded with the Joseph Vigener Prize. He wrote his dissertation “The role of journalistic roles in journalism. Toward a more holistic perspective in role-related research” at the University of Fribourg. It was awarded the highest distinction ‘summa cum laude’. The prize worth 2,000 Swiss francs is awarded to outstanding doctoral theses each year.
https://www.sfuvet.swiss/patric-raemy-receives-vigener-award

SGAB Vocational Education and Training Prize
27.11.2020
The Swiss Society for Applied Research in Vocational Education and Training (SGAB) has awarded its first Vocational Education and Training Prize for the Realto platform. SFIVET professor Dr. Alberto Cattaneo was among the recipients. The ‘At the Heart of Apprenticeships’ exhibition, which was another SFIVET project from Prof. Dr. Nadia Lamamra, had also been nominated for the prize.
https://www.sfuvet.swiss/award-given-realto-platform

Best Paper Awards at the 6th international VET Congress «The end of VET as we know it? Skills development in times of technical and social change»
18.03.2019
On the first place was an article submitted by Miriam Grønning, Irene Kriesi and Stefan Sacchi, which describes the impact of vocational and general knowledge on income disparities between young men and women holding vocational qualifications. Research findings confirm that, already in the early stages of their career, female qualification holders earn less than their male counterparts, despite possessing the same vocational knowledge as male qualification holders.

3rd place of the Best Paper Award at 6th international VET Congress «The end of VET as we know it? Skills development in times of technical and social change»
18.03.2019
On the third place was an article submitted by Carmen Baumeler, Sonja Engelage and Alexandra Strebel. Also working within the GOVPET Leading House, their research focussed on how professional organisations representing the interests of very small occupations managed to preserve their occupations at a time when the number of occupations was supposed to decrease.

Best Paper Award given at the 5th International VET Congress «CREATIVET»
16.03.2017
The paper 'Public Attitudes Towards the Role of the State and the Private Provision of Training: Evidence from the Swiss Apprenticeship System' by Dr. Andreas Kuhn and Prof. Dr. Jürg Schweri from SFIVET and Prof. Dr. Stefan Wolter from the University of Bern won the Best Paper Award at the 5th International Congress on Research in VET in March 2017. In this study the researchers used data on the Swiss VPET system to analyse public attitudes on the role of the state and the private provision of training.

Best Paper Award at 4th International VET Congress «Developing Skills across Institutional Boundaries»
27.03.2015
The Best Paper Award, and CHF 1,000 in prize money, was given to Elisa Motta and Dr. Alberto Cattaneo from SFIVET and Prof. Dr. Jean-Luc Gurtner from the University of Fribourg for their paper “High-level Content Co-regulation Episodes in Small Groups: Experiences in Initial Vocational Education and Training” at the 4th International VET Congress in Zollikofen in March 2015. This paper focuses on self-driven learning processes associated with group learning activities in Swiss VET programmes.

Best Research & Practice Project Award at EAPRIL Conference in 2014
30.11.2014
The project “Mobile technologies to help learners in the VET programme in cooking“, which is part of the Leading Houses “Technologies for Vocational Training (Dual T)”, was given the Best Research & Practice Project Award 2014 by the European Association for Practitioner Research in Improving Learning (EAPRIL). Under the guidance of Dr. Alberto Cattaneo, Elisa Motta (SFIVET), Nicola Piatti (PASSI) and Prof. Dr. Jean-Luc Gurtner (University of Fribourg) worked on this project, which illustrates best practices when it comes to applying research findings to real working situations.

The EU project "PraeLAB", which SFIVET was actively involved in, has been selected as one of twelve Best Practice Models for prevention and intervention in response to the dropout phenomenon
30.08.2014
The EU project "Qualification of vocational training professionals for the identification and counselling of trainees with a high dropout risk" (PraeLAB), which SFIVET was actively involved in, was selected by jurors of the Early School-Leaving and Second-Chance Education Project (ESSE) as a Best Practice Model. The ESSE is a cooperation project involving eight education organisations from seven European countries: Ireland, Malta, Poland, Spain, Romania, Portugal and Lithuania. This cooperation project is intended to promote best practice models for prevention and intervention in response to the dropout phenomenon in all 27 member states of the European Union. The "PraeLab" project is one of twelve Best Practice Models in the EU.

Award for best presentation of a scientific paper by a PhD student
26.08.2014
At the Biennial Meeting of the Special Interest Group "Special Educational Needs“ (SIG 15) of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) in Zurich, Marlise Kammermann was awarded the prize for the best presentation of a scientific paper by a PhD student. Working with Dr. Lars Balzer and Dr. Achim Hättich within the framework of the "Study of occupational careers of Federal VET Certificate holders", she is monitoring the employment situation of the first cohort of graduates of a two-year VET programme leading to issuance of the Federal VET Certificate. More information about the project can be found here: Study of occupational careers of Federal VET Certificate holders

The Best paper award was given to two SFIVET research teams at VET Congress 2013.
15.03.2013
During the VET Congress 2013, a “Best paper award” was given to the best of 80 research papers submitted in response to the call for papers.
The first place “Best paper award” was given to:
- Elena Boldrini and Alberto Cattaneo: “Procedural learning in VET through written identification of errors”, (SFIVET)
- Viviana Sappa and Carmela Aprea: “Individual conceptions of connectivity: How Swiss teachers, trainers and apprentices perceive vocational learning across learning sites”, (SFIVET).

Rose Valida award given to SFIVET researcher Deli Salini
30.11.2012
This is the third time that the Valida Association has awarded the Rose Valida, which is given to people and institutions that have shown extraordinary commitment to the recognition and validation of non-formal and informal learning.

Best Paper Award for study co-produced by SFIVET
10.07.2012
Jürg Schweri, researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (SFIVET) has received the runner-up prize for the Best Paper Award. An international jury of specialists in the field of economics of education awarded the prize for a study published in the “Economics of Education Review“.

SSRE Promotion Prize for Young Researchers
05.07.2012
SFIVET congratulates Dr. Jean-Louis Berger for winning SSRE Promotion Prize for Young Researchers.

Austrian research award for SFIVET researchers
15.07.2010
At the Austrian Conference on Vocational Education and Training Research held in Steyr on 8 - 9 July 2010, Annina Eymann and Jürg Schweri were awarded the 3rd prize for their study entitled „Arbeitsmarktmobilität von Personen mit beruflicher Bildung in der Schweiz“ (labour market mobility of VET graduates in Switzerland).

First Observal Prize
Im November 2009 the Team „ Observal Project“ received the first Observal Prize.

ValiPost
10.06.2009
The Swiss Post was rewarded for its project ValiPost in collaboration with the SFIVET