The Swedish upper secondary school reform implemented in 2011 (GY11) among other things addresses the organization of vocational education and training (VET) and has implications for youths’ transitions from school to work. In this study, GY11 is analyzed in terms of its impact on the organization of knowledge in VET and its implications for young people’s transitions prospects from VET to work, higher education, and for their role as citizens. The consequences of GY11 are analyzed in the context of the practices in one class at a vehicle program. The theoretical point of departure is Basil Bernstein´s distinction between knowledge organized into horizontal and vertical discourses. The study demonstrates that GY11 risks reinforcing an already horizontally organized knowledge in VET by placing great emphasize on strongly context-bound, skill-oriented knowledge. This implies a stronger exclusion of approximately half of the students, primarily with a working-class background, from vertical discourses and limits the possible transitions forSwedish youth taking the VET-route in terms of reduced (i) access to higher education (ii) capacities as citizens and (iii) capacities as workers.