Depending on your previous education and the school for social support, the preparatory courses take between 1.5 and 3 years. Contact the schools directly to find out how long you are likely to need.

At a school for social support, you can prepare for the Federal Professional Examination (FPE) to become a social support worker with a federal certificate. Some schools also offer other training courses and continuing education, further training, for example to become a migration specialist with a Federal Diploma of Higher Education. For more information, please contact the schools using the contact form.

Social assistants work in very different areas, depending on the school for social assistance, even during their training. cognitively, physically or mentally impaired people, in outreach youth work, in everyday support for families and individuals, in support for migrants, in work with refugees and asylum seekers or, for example, in support for the elderly, whether in nursing homes, retirement homes or at home.

The cost of training to become a social support worker with a federal certificate ranges from CHF 17,000 to CHF 24,000, depending on the school for social support, plus the cost of specialist literature, compulsory travel and external stays as well as the Federal Professional Examination. However, as the federal government has been providing financial support for preparatory courses for the federal examinations since the beginning of 2018, participants can expect a refund of the course fees of CHF 8,500 to CHF 9,500. For further information, please contact theSERI.

Participants in continuing education, further training at a school for social support acquire extensive skills in self-management and personal development, communication and conversation, approaches and methods in social support, models and theories and their implementation, for example in the areas of domestic violence, addiction, migration, legal foundations, psychopathology, child protection, crisis support, cognitive and physical impairment, outreach work with the elderly, etc.