You later became director of the Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology. What did you learn in this position?
Renold: I have seen many poor education systems abroad. That is why I wanted to return to ETH to generate solutions on how to help other countries, namely through knowledge transfer. My professorship is currently supporting around thirty countries in the question of how they can offer a sustainable solution so that all young people have fair access to education.
Dannath: So you see the local education system as an export hit and would like to offer it to other countries?
Renold: I’m pretty radical in that respect. You can’t export our system. But we can develop the theoretical foundations to understand what the so-called functional equivalents are in different countries. For example, how vocational training works together with the actors in the employment system so that apprenticeship graduates can be successfully integrated into the labor market. Not all countries have professional associations, for example. So we have to know the countries well and first find out where we can start with a reform to address high youth unemployment, for example. Italy, for example, has youth unemployment of around 25 percent.
We speak of social mobility when one’s social positioning in life does not depend on the family into which one is born. What hinders social mobility?
Renold: The main factor is that most countries have an education system that is not permeable. Once you get into a certain area as a young person, you can’t get out of it.
