When Training Companies Recruit According to Gender. The Recruitment of Apprentices in the Car repair sector in Switzerland

The highly gender-segregated Swiss labour market is linked to a comparably segregated dual training system. Starting from the conceptual framework of the sociology of conventions, the author investigates the effect of the gender variable on the selection of apprentices in a typically masculine sector. The research is based on 27 semi-structured interviews carried out in small and medium companies in the automotive repair industry in German-speaking Switzerland. The results show that training companies recruit their apprentices according to gender, so as to allow for the failures that they think will occur within the companies and also, the risks that the training will fail or be abandoned.