Improving together is what SFUVET is all about
Foreword from the SFUVET Director
The year 2021 will go down in the history of our institution as the year when we acquired higher education status. We are now the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training (SFUVET). And we can be proud of this. At the same time, we will also be assessed on this basis. This is why we continue to work intensively on the quality of our courses and programmes, true to the motto: 'Make today so amazing that yesterday will be green with envy.'
The high quality that we strive for is not an end in itself, but rather an important step towards higher education status. It includes dialogue, cooperation, the desire to shape things and participation. This latter point, participation, and thus the involvement of internal and external actors, will be paramount in the transformation phase.
Last year, the SFUVET Executive Committee adopted the Quality Strategy for 2021–2024. This document is based on the strategic guidelines for 2021–2028 as well as on the action plan for institutional accreditation as a higher education institution. Yet our intention is not merely to postulate quality: we want to make quality of fundamental part of everything that we do. For this reason, SFUVET’s Quality Development Conference was tasked with developing appropriate measures as part of the 'Vivre la qualité' programme.
Developing a genuine quality culture is one thing, ensuring it is another. SFUVET is guided in this endeavour by the quality assurance system developed by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). The first 'Committed to Excellence' (C2E) certification was obtained in 2008 and renewed in 2018. The next higher level 'Qualified by EFQM' (QBE) was achieved in 2021. This certification is a first milestone on the road to institutional accreditation as a higher education institution.
Based on these benchmarks, we intend to provide our VET partners with outstanding services and thus contribute to high-quality VET. Improving together is what SFUVET is all about.
Dr. Barbara Fontanellaz
SFUVET Director