My daughter turns 16 this week and is currently completing her IGCSE's at an International school in Geneva, she will leave in June this year.
She is struggling as to what to do after her exams as she does not want to continue in education, she has basic french but not enough to work in a french speaking company.
Unfortunately the Swiss international education seems to be geared up to the academic student and there seems to be a lack of vocational subjects.
Any ideas or suggestions would be really welcome.

This is one of the reasons why the Swiss (in Zürich at least) want to prevent Swiss children from attending International Schools. ( Private Schools or bilingual schools are different as I believe they follow the Swiss curriculum).

Youngsters from International Schools for whom University is not an option or whose talents lie in a different direction may have difficulty finding an apprenticeship place as their knowledge of the local language is insufficient. They have probably also missed out on the visits to the 'Careers Advisory Service' and 'Schnupperlehre' when children at Swiss schools have time free from school to work at firms for several days. This time in the 'real world' helps them to gain more understanding and insight into what is open to them and what sort of work they would like to do after leaving school. Then they begin to apply to firms which are offering apprenticeship places in their chosen field.

I suggest you get yourselves down to the Careers Advisory Service nearest you and see how they can help with your daughter's situation.

This address of the Berufsberatung in Geneva might help you.

What are her general interests?

I agree with Longbyt. My son was so frustrated by the system that tried to keep him in the school system rather than undertake an apprenticeship, he decided to move back to the UK.
He spent two weeks door knocking and was fortunate enough to get an apprenticeship, did a test for college to get his qualifications and started in the September. He has never looked back and intends to return here once he is qualified.

The system here was too slow and too inflexible for someone wanting to start his career path... I must say, I had my reservations and nagged him to stick with it, but I was wrong. He really pulled it off and made it work for him. So I am really proud of him for knowing his own mind and going for it.

He takes language classes to keep his hand in with German and he was here two weeks ago and was speaking the language like he had never left.

Thank you for your suggestions, unfortunately she doesn't have any idea as to what she wants to do with her life yet and returning to the UK is not an option. It really is a big worry for me!

If she is going to have to stay in Switzerland and integrate herself into the local job market then my first suggestion would be to get her language skills up to scratch - this might even mean sending her over to France for a while for total immersion if she finds it too international in Geneva to be 'forced' into learning. Once she has good French (and being young she will quicky learn) then far more opportunities open up.

That's why one goes to the 'Careers' people. They can do tests with her and help her to find out what she is good at and the sort of thing she likes doing. They know the possibilities in the various branches.

We were once faced with choosing cutlery from about fifty designs. A nightmare till the guy said we should just start by pointing to the ones we didn't much like the look of. Got rid of about thirty from the word go. After that it was not all that difficult. Same with career stuff. Working with people? Working with things? Hands? Head? Outside? Inside? Few people stick to the same 'narrow' direction all their life but no-one wants to spend four years doing something they hate the very thought of.

You might want to go here : http://www.geneve.ch/ofpc/ . They're the office in charge of helping people figure out what career they might want. Usually you can get an appointment or may even be able to just walk in and find some information. Your daughter really needs French though, even if she might be able to get an apprenticeship in an Anglo company.

There's also this site that has all the advice for job and career research in Switzerland: http://www.orientation.ch/dyn/8713.aspx . It's in French but google translate helps I believe. It's a tough situation, but at least you're tackling it before the summer when recruiting runs out. If it comes to the worst, she can go through the unemployment office where they'll send her to Motivation Semester with kids her age also unable to find a career, where she gets lessons in languages and math, and various workshops to get work experience. They really try to take care of teenagers with little or no training, they don't want them in the streets.

Good luck!

P.S: just found this link to a brochure for parents that's in English as well as 14 other languages, it costs 10CHF and can be ordered here: http://www.shop.csfo.ch/index.cfm?cP...roductID=36283

Thank you so much for all your suggestions. We are looking into everything at the moment to find the best direction for my daughter to go in. In all honesty though she needs to make the decisions and maybe the mistakes on her own but I am aiming to give her as many options as possible. Thank you again for taking the time to answer and find the various links.