The beginning of IT vocational training at ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich currently has more than 180 trainees covering 15 different vocations. All trainees enjoy a practical programme in which they receive individual support and professional guidance. The way in which they are trained at ETH Zurich has changed continuously over many years. The various apprenticeships also include application development IT technicians with a Federal VET Diploma (EFZ) and platform development IT technicians with an EFZ. A look at the past shows how IT vocational training at ETH Zurich has changed. But what exactly did this training programme look like in the beginning?
How it all began…
In 1994, the very first two IT trainees, Adrian and Stefan, began their four-year apprenticeship at ETH Zurich. Both are among the pioneers of the IT vocational training programme. Adrian completed his apprenticeship with Franz Kuster in the field of computer servicing. This area included all tasks that were necessary for operating computers, primarily software and hardware repairs. Computer servicing has been known as the Helpdesk or Service Desk since 2000. Stefan successfully completed his apprenticeship with Franz Bachmann at the ETH computer centre in the DPP section (distributed printing and plotting) / «Verteiltes Printen und Plotten (VPP )». This section was responsible for printing out scientific results from the mainframe computer and displaying them graphically using the plotter. Due to the costs involved, the plotters and printers were operated centrally at several locations at the time. Franz Bachmann and Stefan were responsible for installing and ensuring operational maintenance of the plotters and printers. At the beginning of the IT vocational training programme, there were no specialisations, only areas of focus. The idea behind this was that the areas of focus could be adapted to the latest technology at short notice, e.g. after just one year. However, this idea did not catch on. Today, trainees can complete their education specialising in platform development or application development. These fields serve as specialisations. IT vocational training also did not have modules at the beginning; they were introduced in 2001.
Impressions from the past
When the first two IT trainees graduated from ETH Zurich, an article about this milestone was published in ETH Intern. It showed that the training allowed Stefan and Adrian to familiarise themselves with all aspects of IT. «New, interesting and varied» is how Adrian, one of the two pioneers of this training course, described the programme. He also said trainees need to be eager to learn, have a good imagination and be good at recognising connections if they want to succeed. The article also mentions that «It’s not much use just being good with computers». The class at the school was very small at the time because not many people were being trained yet, Adrian and Stefan reported. There were nine trainees in the very first final year of the IT vocational training programme. But there were more very soon!
This is an example of a test set-up for Adrians› final project (now: individual practical assignment, IPA) at that time. The topic of his project was: Migrating the IT environment of the dispatch centre from Macintosh to Windows NT
The important task of vocational trainers
Vocational trainers must be committed when it comes to supporting and encouraging trainees during the programme. That is why vocational trainers should be remembered in the history of the IT vocational training programme. Franz Bachmann supervised one of the first trainees, Franz Kuster the other. In order for the trainees to successfully complete their training programme, they had to present a final project (now known as the «individual practical assignment / Individuelle praktische Arbeit (IPA)»), among other work. To this day, projects of this type are supervised and assessed by the vocational trainers and two other IT examination experts. Over the years, ETH Zurich employees have often volunteered to act as examination experts. The Zürcher Lehrmeistervereinigung Informatik (Zurich Teacher Association for Computer Science, ZLI) was responsible for interdisciplinary training. It was also involved in the recruitment of examination experts. The ZLI is now known as the Zürcher Lehrbetriebsverband. Franz Kuster was a board member of the ZLI until 2001 and later Vice President of PK 19 (Examination Commission for Computer Scientists in the Canton of Zurich) until 2013. He also acted as Chief Expert from 1996 to 2013. During his time as Chief Expert, he organised all examinations in the qualification procedure (formerly LAP). This is a part of his commitment to teaching IT during his time at ETH Zurich.
The title page of Franz Kuster’s album «Meine Lehrlinge» («My Trainees»). The graphic was drawn by his first trainee and was also used as the title slide for a lecture on the IT vocational training programme
Looking back and forward
1994 was the start of something really big! Many more trainees followed the first two in IT at ETH Zurich. Since Adrian and Stefan are among the pioneers of this training programme, ETH Zurich has been involved in the training of future IT technicians from the very beginning. ETH Zurich devotes a great deal of attention to its trainees. For example, the IT Training Lab was set up. In addition, an integration pre-vocational training programme «Integrationsvorlehre» (INVOL) for IT technicians has been available for several years now. ETH Zurich has also been offering the Way-Up training programme in IT since August 2023. It is a shortened apprenticeship for secondary school graduates. The Way-Up apprenticeship shows that the IT vocational training programme is also constantly changing. What will it look like in the future?
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank Franz Kuster, whose documents made it possible to show the beginning of the IT vocational training programme at ETH Zurich.
Links
- IT Training Lab – «IT vocational training at ETH» – pimped up, Episode 1
- IT Training Lab – «IT vocational training at ETH» – pimped up, Episode 2
- Way-up: the shortened IT apprenticeship at ETH – ITS Blog
Your story
What connects you with IT vocational training at ETH Zurich? We look forward to your stories and comments on this blog.
History / ITS & ETH write history
- Previous IT Finds to guess
- More on the history of ITS & ETH in the ITS Blog and on the ETH website
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Text & research: Sandra Saxer, intern at ITS PR & Communication
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