Editing Swiss Civilian Service (section)

== Civilian service ==
Once part of the civilian service program, one has to work 50 percent longer than the total normal cumulative  military service period.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Western Europe 2012|last=Thompson|first=Wayne|publisher=Stryker-Post Publications|year=2012|isbn=9781610488983|location=Lanham, MD|pages=246}}</ref> Full cumulative military service for normal soldiers is currently 245 days,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2024.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613005230/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2024.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 13, 2007|title=The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency|website=www.cia.gov|language=en|access-date=2018-08-04}}</ref> while full civilian service is 365 days. Many [[nonprofit organization]]s are licensed to employ civilian service workers. Unlike the former Civilian Service in Germany, where the servants did their work mainly in hospitals and healthcare sites, Swiss ones can apply for work in a broad variety of opportunities: health care, welfare, environmental protection, agriculture (small or alpine farms), research projects, and development assistance abroad.

Civilian servicemen must have the appropriate skills for each type of assignment – for example, because there are very few job vacancies in development aid.

A big difference between civilian and military service is that civilian service participants can greatly profit from his substitute service – in terms of work experience – to achieve a better position after the service, although it is formally not allowed to do civilian service with, for example, the goal of passing an exam in mind. So, during civilian service in a research institute, one must not write personal academic papers to be submitted at a later time.

There are still issues with how to handle Swiss living abroad who have already passed recruitment and are already members of the Swiss militia army. In this case, they are not exempt from military service or civilian service, and every step of the application process requires their presence in Switzerland.