Do any of you out there, with family, have experience of importing teenagers into the country, preferably with as an limited amount of sulks and tantrums as possible? (OK maybe I’m being unrealistic re: sulks!)

My 16 -year old son leaves U.K. education in June and as this will be roughly the time as we move over to Zurich, I would like to know what the options for him regarding further education and/or work apprenticeships might be.

His real goal was to do electronics at college then on to University but I don’t know how things are set up in Swiss schools for teens moving over. Probably because most sensible people leave them settled back home

He took French through school and can only manage the odd German expletive so I imagine his employability to be pretty limited. Although I have no doubts that he will soon pick up German, it won’t be instant and I cannot stand the thought of a spotty teen moping around the apartment all day, longing to be back home in the U.K.

I really want to sell the positive aspects of life in Zurich and so would like to hear from any of you that have been through similar experiences and could offer me some advice and ideas.

Cheers!

To be entirely frank having watched relatives do just this and without meaning to offend, you have the options of:

1. Totally ruining his life by leaving him an uneducated, unemployable person in Switzerland ie he can work filling shelves but that is it.
2. You leave him in England with relatives to finish his formal UK education.
3. Either you or your employer dig in to the respective pockets and pay for his last couple of years in a Swiss International School or UK boarding school. ca SFr. 25K per year here.

Note if you are coming over here as a non-local ie ex-pat employee 3 is more or less always paid by your employer. If you are not then I suggest you mention this to the future employer who probably will make a contribution. If there is no future employer then you are potentially insane!!

With respect to 1. The Swiss system is so different to the UK system that there will be no chance of fitting him into any type of school here plus he will have completed the 10 years education hence no legal obligation to educate on the part of the Swiss. Hence, he will have nowhere to go. The Swiss system brings you to a junction where at the end you either go on to further education or begin an apprenticeship. Given that your son will have no relevant language skills and not have had the benefit of the tailored education either, no-one is going to be offering him an apprenticeship and given his lack of Matura a higher job.

This is a fairly serious step you are proposing to take and I don't think you should jump until you have a plan for your son as there is no way you can sell him something that does not offer him a potential future and that will no be as part of the "mainstream" Swiss system...

I would like to echo what Richard said and add a couple bits more.

Apprenticeships are becoming increasingly difficult for Swiss kids to find - you'll find parents advertising that they're looking for apprenticeships for their kids in the strangest places (like signs on cars, etc.).

If your son doesn't have Swiss qualifications and lives here, his job options are extremely limited. Even cleaning jobs will have apprenticeships or extensive experience required, as does being a store clerk. Without qualifications, your son is going to be more than just a brooding teenager at home, but an unemployable and uneducatable (under the Swiss system) one too. And I speak from experience that the unemployable factor gets greater the older he gets.

Thank you Richard and evilshell for your words of wisdom. You kind of reiterated what I had concluded myself from lack of information or at the very least negative information out there on the subject.

As I am coming to do my PhD I don't quite know about negotiating a place at international school. It may be time well spent negotiating with grannie back home and selling the idea of "great holidays with mom!" At the very least until he has his A level electronics to gain him access to a place at university and develop his German too for that matter.

Thank you for your answers, they really did help to clarify the situation.