In modern societies educational achievement has become a decisive factor influencing participation in the labour market and in other areas of societal life. In Switzerland, it is generally claimed that everybody should complete upper secondary education. Accordingly, educational policy strives to create an educational offer which accounts for the different interests and skills of young people. While a variety of programmes exist, vocational education and training in the form of apprenticeships is still the main form of upper secondary education. It combines workplace training in companies (3 to 4 days a week) and school-based education in vocational schools (1 to 2 days a week). Policy underlines the importance of high quality education and training both in the workplace and in vocational schools. However, only little reasearch can be found which assesses both characteristics of workplace training and school based education. Accordingly, little is known about the influence of these characteristics on educational satisfaction and the motivation of apprentices to continue the chosen apprenticeship. Educational drop out statistics show that some of the main reasons for cancelling apprenticeship contracts can be found in insufficient achievement, low motivation and interest of the apprentices as well as in conflicts between apprenticeship master and apprentice. However, these statistics lack to assess the complex processes which lead to change or drop out. Given the high change and drop out rate from apprenticeships, educational policy wants to learn more about the factors and processes which influence the pathways of apprentices throughout their education and training. Three questions are of major importance: How do apprentices perceive their workplace training and their school based education? In what way does the quality of training and education influence the educational satisfaction of apprentices and their motivation to continue with their apprenticeship? How can the assessed characteristics of training and education explain change or drop out from apprenticeships? Focussing on these questions data gathered by the national youth cohort study TREE has been analysed. The sample consists of 1500 young people from the German, French and Italian part of Switzerland, who took part in the PISA 2000 study and had entered apprenticeship training in 2001. Results presented at ECER 2004 will include data from the first three panels of TREE (2001, 2002 and 2003), linking them with data collected by PISA 2000. The presentation will first give an overview on the characteristics of training and education in companies and vocational schools as they were described by the apprentices. Different groups of occupations and their specific educational setting will be compared. Aspects of workplace training training include the variety of work, job control, work load, pedagogical competencies of apprenticeship masters, social support of apprenticeship master and best colleagues. As regards education in vocational schools, the same dimensions are measured. Results show that work and school contexts vary considerably according to the occupations apprentices are trained in. However, regardless of the occupation, both school and work characteristics influence young people's educational satisfaction, their motivation to proceed with the chosen apprenticeship and the actual educational pathway. In the presentation, it will be argued, however, that satisfaction in regard to the apprenticeship as well as the actual pathway heavily depends on the quality of work based learning and teaching. In addition to school based, achievement-related programmes to prevent change and drop-out from apprenticeships, measures should be developed to improve the training in the company.