Recent studies on vocational or professional identity emphasise its dynamisms; i.e. identity is not only restricted to the present moment (‘who I am at this moment’), but it is seemed to develop through the life, whereupon also earlier experiences and expectations can be seemed as a part of vocational identity development (see e.g. Eteläpelto, 2007; Beijaard, Meijer & Verloop, 2004). Individuals’ vocational identity development can be fostered if workers have the chance to participate in activities at work and to interact with their co-workers (Billett, 2004). In this paper, considering students’ vocational identity formation during their VET I will take account of students’ past (i.e. students’ earlier work experience) and their future work prospects (i.e. a job waiting after their graduation). More specifically, I address the following research questions: 1) what kind of meaning do students’ former work experience is for their vocational identity formation during VET, and 2) what kind of relationship there is between students’ vocational identity formation during their VET and their work prospects (i.e. a job waiting after their graduation)?

The data were collected with an Internet questionnaire in 2003-2004 from vocational students (N = 3106). The students were final-year students from six fields of VET: 1) technology and transport, 2) social services and health care, 3) commerce and administration, 4) tourism, catering and domestic services, 5) natural resources, and 6) culture. In total, 1603 students (52 %) answered the questionnaire. The data were analysed using quantitative methods, such as factor analysis, comparisons of mean values, variance analysis (ANOVA, MANOVA).

As preliminary findings, students’ earlier work experience seems to foster some components of their vocational identity. In particular, students’ earlier work experience strengthened students’ vocational identity, in other words, students were beginning to feel that they were members of their occupational group. In the same way, students’ critical reflection (i.e. students’ abilities to assess their own strengths and weaknesses) developed more among students which had earlier work experiences. Instead, the relationship between students’ future work prospects and their vocational identity formation during VET was complex. The results showed that students’ vocational identity formation during VET and their future work prospects were interrelated with each other, but it can not be said whether students’ future work prospects foster students’ vocational identity development during VET (see Billett, 2004) or do employers take on the students whose vocational identity has develop more than others. Thus, on the basis of this study, at least the earlier experiences are conducive to students’ vocational identity formation during VET (see Eteläpelto, 2007; Beijaard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004).