One third of French young people are in the vocational track in secondary education (vocational high school or apprenticeship, RERS, 2021). The French education system relies on a strong academic convention (Verdier, 2008) embodied in a specific grammar of schooling, a “forme scolaire” (Robert, 2013). Although the vocational baccalaureate is presented as a baccalaureate "like any other", the vocational route suffers from a hierarchy of disciplines imposed by academic convention (David, 2021). Indeed, the vocational baccalaureate is thus a baccalaureate somewhat apart (Maillard, Moreau, 2019), whose identity and comparative advantage are regularly questioned. This paper discusses the structure of vocational preparation in France, and considers the different types of institutions that offer this provision. The paper explores vocational high schools, apprenticeship centres, and production schools (on-campus applied education that provides an alternative training path for young people aged between 14 and 18 years), as well as post-school institutions such as University Institutes of Technology (IUTs) that offer the diploma in technological studies (called in France a Diplôme universitaire de technologie - DUT), which are two-year diplomas leading to occupational outcomes. While IUTs have long enjoyed academic recognition because they are attached to institutions of higher education, vocational high schools have been criticized for their inability to forge links with the professional world. The latest reforms in vocational education (laws of 2009, 2018, bill of 2023) are therefore aimed at promoting apprenticeship to increase the integration rate of young people. Concerning IUT, the 2021 reform strengthens the links between IUTs and academic logic by changing their flagship diploma (DUT) from a 2-year diploma to a 3-year diploma (BUT - Bachelor Universitaire de Technologie) which corresponds to a vocational license level. How to build the articulation towards the higher education in the middle of these different conventions? Based on two monographic researches about vocational high schools (ethnographic approach of 10 schools, 50 interviews), this paper aims to analyze the intertwining of the academic and vocational conventions in the vocational path between multiple political injunctions and daily management of training needs.

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