Apprenticeships have emerged as a major European policy model. Based on the resurgence of global interest in TVET and the economic success of German-speaking countries in Europe, apprenticeships – particularly dual models of TVET (dVET) – have been positioned as a route to improved productivity, economic growth, social inclusion, and more. The European Union (EU) has become one of the most active proponents of apprenticeships and dVET (Martínez-Izquierdo and Torres Sánchez, 2022), promoting policy adoption and harmonisation across Member States, but also globally via its collaboration with international organisations such as the OECD and ILO (OECD, 2014), and via bilateral cooperation agencies such as the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). GIZ has been particularly active in driving dVET adoption in the Global South, including in Mexico, which launched the Modelo Mexicano de Formación Dual (MMFD - Mexican Model of Dual Training) in 2013.

Despite this concentration of activity around dual apprenticeship policy promotion, evidence about how such programmes function outside of ‘donor’ contexts (particularly Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) is limited. Previous research has focused on the question of how/in what way to use dVET as a model for policy borrowing (Gonon, 2014) or assessing the barriers and successes of implementation from an institutional perspective (Valiente and Scandurra, 2017). By contrast, this paper explores the research question how does policy transfer of dVET impact young policy participants? Using the MMFD as a case study, the paper explores the motivations, aspirations, and goals of dual students in Mexico, as well as the strategies they employ to achieve those ends and navigate their dVET experiences. Longitudinal study supports examination of the evolution and adjustment of young people’s perspectives over time and captures the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis on post-dVET youth transitions.

The paper takes a particular interest in how and why different young people end up on pathways that diverge from each other and their own initial expectations. The negotiation of decision-making processes is examined as a highly contextualised phenomenon, mediated by young people’s differing identities, beliefs, agencies, and access to resources. An emphasis on TVET as a means of pursuing social justice and holistic personal and human development is used to challenge the dominance of human capital and productivist discourses in this field and instead highlight the importance of young people’s agency and life projects contextualised within diverse and overlapping structural constraints.

As a result, the study is able to shed light on how inequalities of different kinds interact with and are impacted by dVET programmes operating outside of ‘donor’ contexts. These findings have important relevance for European and TVET actors interested in the implementation and transfer of (dual) apprenticeship programmes in new contexts, particularly as they are firmly centred on the views and experiences of young people who have previously been underrepresented in dVET transfer research. Greater awareness of how dVET programmes interact with socio-cultural and economic contexts that do not share a historical path dependency with dual institutional structures can inform more effective and equitable dVET policy-making and, indeed, invite critical reflection on the suitability of dVET programmes for diverse non-donor contexts in Europe and globally.

The study follows the dVET transitions of 16 young people living in Coahuila, Mexico. This qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) project comprises three waves of semi-structured interviews (n=48) conducted between February 2020 and February 2022. Each interview point corresponds to a ‘critical juncture’ related to education and work, namely: approaching graduation; immediate post-graduation period; one year or more after graduation. More broadly, these moments of choice and change are structured by a variety of institutions and contexts surrounding young people, extending from global economic conditions, to national public health restrictions, to regional structuring of education transitions, to familial and personal changes in circumstance. The longitudinal and, thus, very personal nature of the research valorises young people’s own understandings, giving extended space and time to their thoughts and reflections and offering the opportunity for growth, change, and re-reflection on relevant themes. QLR with young people offers substantial opportunities to develop knowledge about dVET policy transfer, enabling us “to explore subjectivities within crossnational approaches, illuminating the intersections between structural factors and individual lives in time” (Morrow and Crivello, 2015: 268). The sample of MMFD students (n=16) aimed for gender balance (m=9, f=7) and sectoral diversity (industrial=11, services=5), although the overrepresentation of industrial specialisms reflected the service offer of the schools and the local economic/labour profile. Interviews were semi-structured and in each wave explored i) current experiences and circumstances (work, education, personal); ii) narration of decision-making processes; iii) expectations, aspirations, and life plans; and iv) assessment of the MMFD programme and recommendations for change. Wave 1 particularly emphasised young people’s journeys to participation in dVET, while Waves 2 and 3 explored transition and identity formation in greater depth, as well as impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Wave 1 interviews were conducted on vocational school campuses in Coahuila, with later interviews conducted via Zoom at times of travel restrictions. Ethical approval was granted by the University of Glasgow School of Education Ethics Committee.

Three primary themes in young people’s experiences are explored (analysis ongoing). Firstly, gender is a defining feature of dVET experiences for MMFD students. Young women face gendered barriers to their access, participation, and outcomes in dVET that materially affect their personal and professional development relative to their male counterparts and their own high aspirations. This can alter young women’s gender consciousness and self-identity as they face discrimination and processes of gender socialisation. As apprentices’ educational transitions intertwine with their entry into young adulthood, the gendered roles of familial, social, and economic participation become increasingly relevant to their decision-making and shape the effects that dVET participation can have on their lives. Secondly, although MMFD students are typically viewed as a (low status) socio-economically homogenous group, class-based differences in access to social and economic capital mediate young people’s post-dVET transitions. In particular, in a context of economic crisis and substantial disruption of young people’s life plans, important differences in habitus allow some young people to more confidently pursue their aspirations, while others must focus on the immediate needs of their families and become drawn into reproductive cycles of informality and precarity, counter to the formalising aims of dual training. Finally, the results highlight the importance of time as a facet of the broader political economy context of dVET transitions. Despite claims about the crisis resilience that dVET can offer national economies, being young and experiencing transition/vulnerability at times of crisis is of fundamental consequence to young people’s onward trajectories and life experiences. Despite this, the MMFD, like many transferred dVET programmes, does not take account of how gender, class, and crisis conditions mediate the impacts of the programme. Doing so undermines the aims and effectiveness of the intervention expressed by young people and in policy discourses, and risks exacerbating inequalities.

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