With an inauguration ceremony on Monday, October 25, 2021, the new «Swiss Leading House VPET-ECON» started its work. The Research Center on the Economics of Education, Firm Behavior and Training Policies» is a joint project under the direction of Prof. Uschi Backes-Gellner (University of Zurich) and Prof. Stefan C. Wolter (University of Bern) funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

During the event, the new «Leading House VPET-ECON» received greetings and congratulations from Josef Widmer, Deputy Director of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), from Prof. Egon Franck, Director of the Department of Business Administration at the University of Zurich, and from Prof. Maximilian von Ehrlich, representative of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Bern. The ceremony was surrounded by greetings and historical remarks from its two co-directors, Prof. Uschi Backes-Gellner and Prof. Stefan C. Wolter.

Another highlight of the evening was the keynote speech by Prof. Harald Pfeifer, head of the department on «Economics of Vocational Education and Training» at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (bibb) in Bonn as well as professor of «Economics of Vocational Education and Training» at the «Research Centre for Education and Labor Market (ROA)» at Maastricht University.

In his lecture, he focused on the role of  economic research on vocational education and training (VET) and reflected upon special features and challenges of VET research. He further explained the importance of VET research for policy makers and practitioners by providing examples of the actual benefits of VET economics and in so doing underlined the importance of future research by the Swiss Leading House VPET-ECON.