Young people in jobs without training(JWT), ie jobs which do not require nationally-set levels of accreditation, have been identified as an area of priority concern by policy makers in the UK and are targeted within the 14-19 agenda(DfES, 2006). They are seen as having low levels of life and vocational skills, as threatening national literacy and numeracy targets and as disdavantaging the UK within an internataional context.This paper draws on an ongoing longitudinal qualitative research project exploring the life patterns and perceptions of young people in jobs without training. The project is based at Exeter University and is funded by the Learning and Skills Council, the ESF and Connexions, the careers advisory service for young people in England.The research uses a range of qualitative methods: focus groups, face to face interviews and telephone interviews to explore how young people in jobs without training are positioned in terms of policy, learning opportunities and access to useful advice and guidance. It is particpative in nature and has involved a range of stakeholder perspectives and collaborations throughout.The research shows that debate in this area is shaped by false assumptions about JWT and consequently asks the wrong questions. Data from the research shows that a job without training need not mean a life without learning,that such jobs are not necessarily unskilled and that young people's perceptions of such jobs and themselves are not negative. The policy drive for linear progression via accredited training does not fit well with the complex and fluid patterns of their lives. The paper will challenge the predominant view of young people in jobs without training as dead end kids who need rescuing from their dead end jobs and moving on to accredited learning. Colley, H., James, D., Tedder, M. and Diment, K. (2003) Learning as becomiong, vocational education and training, class , gender and the role of vocational habitus, Journal of Voctional Education and Training, 55(4)471-498 Lawy, R. (2006) Connective learning: a cultural account of young people's identity and knowledge making in work and non-work contexts, Briotish Journal of Sociology of Education, 27(3) 325-340 Quinn, J. , Thomas, L., Slack, K., Casey, L., Thexton, W. and Noble, J. (2006) Lifting the Hood: Lifelong learning and young white provincial working class masculinities, British Educational Research Journal, 32(5), 735-751