Apprenticeship courses in Portugal are quite different from other European countries, namely the UK and Germany (see Linderholm & Parker, 2000). Although the model was essentially based on the German’ Dual System, its implementation and functioning appears to follow more strongly a school-based model than the above-mentioned contexts. Similarities between these three countries can be found in the combination of on-the-job learning with off-the-job learning and the amount of time in workplace training. Differences, however, can also be found and they rest especially in the contractual relationship, the monetary support, and the access to the programs. Moreover, there seem to be differences in the profile of young adults enrolled in apprenticeships. In Portugal, a relevant number of apprentices have former stories of school disengagement and dropout (Neves & Figueiredo, 2007). This is not an equivalent situation to, for instance, the German context where there is no place in apprenticeships for people “with poor scholastic performance” (Walden & Troltsch, 2011, p. 317). These dissimilarities appear to have influence in the social status of the vocational education and training systems and of the young people who are enrolled in it.  In Portugal, although this topic is scarcely researched, “prevails the idea that vocational courses are alternative solutions or second-line alternatives that have the additional advantage of allowing the completion of secondary education” (Torres & Araújo, 2010, p. 1221). In the UK, “apprenticeships, like all vocational education, tend to be very low status, especially compared to more academic routes” (Chadderton & Wischmann, 2014, p. 331). Nonetheless, apprenticeships in Germany “retain a relatively high status and remain a viable alternative to a more academic route to employment” (Chadderton & Wischmann, 2014, p. 332).

 The paper is based on a research focused on the apprenticeship courses in Portugal, questioning it as a measure of social justice (Barry, 2005; Bernstein, 1996) to reduce Early School Leaving (ESL) (Araújo, Magalhães, Rocha, & Macedo, 2014) and, simultaneously, of assuring the possibility to access to Higher Education. To discuss this type of vocational path as promoting social justice follows the question launched by Torres and Araújo (2010, p.1221): “if the diversification of measures of educational provision at a vocational level will be a mechanism for promoting social equality or a means to reproduce and intensify social inequalities?”.

The purpose of this paper is to explore, analyse and illustrate the reasons of young apprentices to enroll an apprenticeship, in line with Mills and McGregor (2014), and their perceptions of the social status attributed to them as students in this training modality.

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