HETSL.ch

What HETSL.ch does

HETSL (Haute école de travail social et de la santé Lausanne) is a public higher education institution based in Lausanne, Switzerland, focused on social work and health sciences education. It is part of the HES-SO network (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland) and operates under the regulatory and funding framework of the Canton of Vaud. The institution delivers two bachelor's programs — Bachelor en Travail social (731 students) and Bachelor en Ergothérapie (265 students) — plus master's programs in social work and health sciences delivered in collaboration with HES-SO, and a substantial continuing education (formation continue) program with 2,104 enrolled students. The current director is Alessandro Pelizzari.

The institution's research and development activity is organized through LaReSS, which coordinates seven thematic networks: AVIF (age, vieillissements et fin de vie), GeTS (genre et travail social), MaTISS (marché du travail, insertion et sécurité sociale), OHS (occupations humaines et santé, jointly with HESAV), Neurodev (participation sociale des personnes avec troubles neurodéveloppementaux), URA (unité de recherche pour et par les personnes concernées par l'autisme), and Observatoire des précarités. Strategic partnerships extend the institutional footprint to HESAV (OHS network), HES-SO Valais Travail Social (CrimSo-Online platform), and Eben-Hézer Lausanne (community music and social support workshop).

HETSL's revenue model is structurally different from a commercial entity: it is funded through cantonal subsidies (Canton of Vaud), federal contributions routed via HES-SO, regulated tuition fees for degree programs, and fees for continuing education. The technology footprint is standard academic infrastructure — Moodle for learning management, IS-Academia for student information, and conventional library systems — with no proprietary AI/ML capability disclosed. There is no equity capital, no M&A activity, and no investor return mechanism; the institution is a non-commercial public sector body whose "growth" is measured in student throughput, research output, and continuing education enrollment rather than in revenue or valuation.

Name

HETSL.ch

Legal name

Haute école de travail social et de la santé Lausanne

Website

https://hetsl.ch

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

HETSL is a public Swiss higher education institution in Lausanne, part of the HES-SO network, offering bachelor's and master's degrees in social work and health sciences plus a 2,104-student continuing education program and a seven-network applied research division (LaReSS).

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Lausanne

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Tertiary Education Services: HETSL generates revenue through tuition fees for Bachelor and Master level programs, government funding for public higher education institutions in Switzerland, and fees for continuing education and professional development courses.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

HETSL is a public higher education institution offering Bachelor programs in Social Work and Occupational Therapy, Master programs in Social Work and Health Sciences (jointly with HES-SO), a continuing education unit for working professionals, and an applied research and development division (LaReSS). Services are delivered on the Lausanne campus and through online/hybrid formats to students, professionals, and partner organizations in Western Switzerland.

Product overview

HETSL offers a unified portfolio of higher education programs in social work and health sciences. The core offerings are two Bachelor degree programs (Travail social and Ergothérapie), two Master programs in collaboration with HES-SO, a comprehensive continuing education division, and an active research and development unit (LaReSS). The institution operates as a single integrated university of applied sciences rather than a platform with separate products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Bachelor en Travail social Bachelor-level undergraduate degree program in Social Work preparing students for professional practice in social services, community work, and social intervention. Targets prospective students seeking a federally recognized qualification as social workers.
• Bachelor en Ergothérapie Bachelor-level undergraduate degree program in Occupational Therapy training professionals to enable participation in daily activities and occupations. Targets prospective students pursuing careers in occupational therapy practice.
• Master en Travail social Master-level graduate program in Social Work offered in collaboration with HES-SO, building on the Bachelor for advanced practice and research. Targets graduates of the Bachelor in Social Work and equivalent qualifications.
• Master en Sciences de la Santé Master-level graduate program in Health Sciences offered in collaboration with HES-SO for advanced interdisciplinary health professionals. Targets health sciences graduates seeking advanced qualifications.
• Formation continue (Continuing Education) Continuing education unit offering short courses (Formations courtes), postgraduate programs (Formations postgrades), HETSL-certified training (Formations certifiantes HETSL), and institutional mandates (Formations et mandats en institution) for working professionals in social work and health sectors.
• Recherche et développement (LaReSS) Research and development division (LaReSS) conducting scientific research in social work and health, with publications, working papers, Éditions HETSL, Open Science outputs, and a service offerings catalog (Prestations de service) for partner organizations.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• HES-SO (Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHETSL is part of the HES-SO network, the largest university of applied sciences in Switzerland. Through this partnership, HETSL participates in the Master-level program offerings and benefits from shared resources and institutional recognition across the network.
• Haute École de Santé Vaud (HESAV)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborates with HESAV on interdisciplinary events and research. The Network OHS (Occupations Humaines et Santé) operates in partnership with HESAV, demonstrating inter-institutional collaboration in health sciences research and education.
• HES-SO Valais, Travail SocialminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership through the CrimSo-Online platform (Travail social dans la justice pénale) which brings together social work expertise across HES institutions to address issues at the intersection of addiction and criminal justice.
• Eben-Hézer LausanneminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative relationship with the Eben-Hézer institution for social support. The Band d'Eben-Hézer music group, a protected workshop involving people with social difficulties, performs regularly at HETSL events, creating experiential learning opportunities for students.
• Eben-Hézer BandminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerA music group formed by residents, externals, and professionals from Eben-Hézer Lausanne. This protected workshop provides a semi-professional musical activity for people facing social difficulties, with objectives including expression, development, valorization, and social inclusion.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Université de Lausanne (UNIL): Cantonal university located in Lausanne with overlapping faculty networks, applied health research, and policy-influence reach. Competes for talent and research grants in the same region though it operates as a full university rather than an applied sciences school.
• Berner Fachhochschule (BFH): Large multi-disciplinary Swiss UAS offering social work and health sciences alongside engineering, business, and design. Comparable as a Swiss UAS competitor but with materially broader scope than HETSL's narrow specialization.

Regional players

• Fachhochschule Graubünden (FHGR): Smaller Swiss UAS serving the Graubünden region with applied social work and service-management programs. Comparable mission and applied-research orientation, but operates in a different linguistic and geographic territory.

Direct peers

• Haute école de santé Fribourg (HEdS-FR): Fribourg-based HES-SO school for nursing, physiotherapy, and midwifery. Direct peer for occupational therapy-adjacent health professions and continuing education in Western Switzerland.
• Haute école de travail social de Genève (HETS-GE): Geneva-based sister school within the HES-SO network offering Bachelor and Master programs in social work. It is the most direct peer to HETSL, sharing the same regulatory framework, French-language delivery, and applied social work focus.
• Haute École de Santé Vaud (HESAV): Lausanne-based health sciences school within HES-SO offering nursing, physiotherapy, and related Bachelor programs. Already a strategic partner of HETSL (Network OHS) and operates in the same cantonal higher-education ecosystem with adjacent health-science focus.
• Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana (SUPSI): Italian-speaking Swiss UAS operating under a parallel applied-sciences framework. Comparable institutional structure to HETSL within Switzerland's federal higher-education system, including applied research, continuing education, and Bachelor/Master programs.
• Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit, FHNW: Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz's school of social work, offering Bachelor, Master, and continuing education in social work. Closely comparable in mission, applied-research orientation, and professional continuing-education model.
• ZHAW Departement Soziale Arbeit: Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften's social work department, the largest German-speaking Swiss school for social work education. Direct competitor for faculty, research funding, and postgraduate student recruitment at the national level.
• Haute école de travail social Fribourg (HETS-FR): Fribourg-based HES-SO member delivering social work Bachelor and Master programs. Comparable to HETSL in mission, scale, and governance structure, with overlapping student recruitment territory in Western Switzerland.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/HETSLch
• Facebookfacebook.com/HETSL
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hetsl
• Instagraminstagram.com/hetsl_lausanne

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about HETSL.ch