TEACHER TRAINING - BASIC AND SPECIALIST

Teacher training and as a consequence also specialist teacher training is presently undergoing a major change in Switzerland. Whereas until now teacher training for the primary school was a prolonged High-School programme, overlapping between secondary level II (ISCED 3) and tertiary level (ISCED 5), it will now become an entirely tertiary training (which means, requiring a high school degree) at the college level (ISCED 5) terminating with a bachelors degree.

Basic teacher training
Basic teacher training requires a high school degree and takes 3 years at college level, terminating with a bachelors degree (for teaching in primary schools). It is required, that SNE is taught in the basic teacher training - however there is some discussion going on right now, about how much and what contents should be included.

Specialist Training
The training for special needs education requires a degree in basic teaching. At the moment there is no training possibility starting immediately after High School. The duration is two years full time or more if study is in parallel to work.
There is only one form of certificate with a national recognition, therefore most training courses are general, i.e. not specific for certain types of SEN. However, some courses offer the possibility to focus upon studies for certain disabilities.