“Mummy, I Want to Be a Tram Driver When I Grow Up!”
The excitement of an industrial age is reflected in the Thomas the Tank Engine stories, inspired by locomotive engineering and capturing the pride and morality of a nation in a pre-digital era. Many young children list their first choice of future employment as a bus or tram driver or a train conductor. At age three, this profession is certainly a dream for many of them. Our fascination with new transport vehicles has a fitting continuum as expats here marvel at the Swiss trams and trains that arrive so punctually you can set your watch by them. The digital precision and fluidity of transport systems in Zurich – that really do function like clockwork – never cease to impress me, even after 12 years of living in Switzerland.
Nevertheless, in a city where many internationals are invited to work due to their highly specialized skills, people who feel privileged by their own education may understandably want their children to prepare for other careers than the tram or bus driver, once they pass the age of three. Learning about the services and professions that contribute to a highly functioning society is an important phase in children’s lives, but the focus amongst multi-lingual parents choosing a school for English-speaking children is generally to ensure that their children remain flexible regarding career choice, which intrinsically implies attending university or college after the end of formal schooling.
Hence the collective sigh of relief at this time of year, by the way, after some of our children have sat the entrance exams for a Swiss Gymnasium. The full model (Langzeit) from ages 12 to 18 separates academic children from the rest, uncomfortably redolent of the old English secondary Modern and Grammar school divide. Partly because we do not completely understand the options of the many Swiss vocational routes that present practical alternatives to purely academic higher education in the Swiss system, the pressure some parents and students feel is great.
Parents who attended university themselves and have reason to believe their child has university potential must try to decide in which school their pre-pubescent or teenaged offspring will be both happy and high-achieving – to his or her individual level. The child has to have some say at this age in order to be motivated to compete. You may only apply to one Gymnasium, rather than hedging your bets by sitting exams at several. Although English is a global scientific language and the second language learned in canton Zurich schools after German, and some would argue breadth is equally important as specialisation at this stage in schooling, the state (i.e., free, or public) Gymnasien in Zurich only test children for their German and maths. They have to get an average of at least 4 out of 6 (vaguely equivalent to B-/C to A+ in the U.S.) to be admitted. Applications are increasing and in the city of Zurich places are limited, making competition quite fierce. Many Swiss parents prefer a Kurzzeit Gymnasium (four years beginning after the eighth or ninth school year) for their children, or they leave the decision entirely up to the teachers and children.
In the world of private education, Freies Gymnasium Zurich offers a bilingual Gymnasium which tests additionally in English, and they have 15-minute orals in all three subjects: English, German and maths, so they actually meet the children individually. I am aware many readers may not have decided to settle in Switzerland forever, but it is worth nevertheless thinking what would happen if we did. Hull’s School in Stadelhofen offers British system exams at 16 and A levels. They expressly cater for those pupils who would not fare well in the Swiss secondary system due to their lack of German or their inappropriate relegation to the lower levels of “Sek,” or Sekundarschule, which covers the seventh to ninth school years in Zurich canton. International schools also offer routes to international higher education if it is not imperative for your child to convert to a German education.
What if private schooling is not an option, your child is not particularly academic or responds badly to competition? If he or she has good enough German to stay in Sek A, there are many interesting vocational options with excellent structures built in as career building blocks. You will need to “go local” too, not leave it to your children alone, as speaking German yourselves, networking at work and in the community, and neighbourly relations will boost their chances of gaining good apprenticeships and possibly internships.
To be honest, careers in the world of transportation are a good option. The Swiss Railroad (SBB) and Zurich Verkehrsverbund (ZVV) offer excellent packages for young learners, and apprentices are offered many continuing education opportunities and options to grow within the companies. So you when your three-year-old future tram or bus driver asks what he or she must do to become one, it is not a bad idea to encourage the child’s interest in the area of transport.
Last but not least, consider the experiences of the journalist Thomas Schenk who was a tram driver for five years after losing his job as a journalist. He undertook the two-month tram driving training course, and while driving trams conducted public readings from his book about tram driving in Zurich, based on his bimonthly column that ran for four years in the tram company ad in the 20 Minuten newspaper. By stepping down and up again, he turned apparent misfortune into an opportunity, attracted a great following and managed to earn a decent wage while re-orienting his career. Although Schenk is Swiss, the phrase “as resourceful as an expat” springs to mind. It must be all that Gymnasium preparation my son and I have been doing.
By Monica Shah
Monica has a 12-year-old English- and German-speaking son who has lived here by happenstance all his life. The web of contributory factors that have led his family to stay in Switzerland nine years longer than planned include: the U.K. economic climate, the flawless transport infrastructure including a 30-minute journey to Zurich airport, and Monica’s supposed talent for languages, which somehow has not helped her German to improve as fast as she predicted.
Illustration by Lara Friedrich
Click for more information:
Freies Gymnasium (Zurich) bilingual Gymnasium and Secondary A
Hull’s School: English high school/Gymnasium
