The paper explores young people’s accounts on their experiences from Vocational Education and Training (VET) concerning factors supporting and hindering successful completion. The study is part of a cross-national research project, Vocational education and workplace training enhancing social inclusion of at-risk young people (EmpowerVET) involving four countries: Lithuania, Norway, Estonia, and Latvia. The purpose of the project is to investigate how vocational education and training (VET) may enhance social inclusion of young people who are at risk of becoming economically and socially marginalised. Counteracting social exclusion of young people at risk for early school leaving and unemployment has been a high priority in EU policies during the last decades. Across Europe, young people face labour market exclusion; they may experience long unemployment periods, or they may be non-participating in either employment, education, or training (NEET). Many young people leave upper-secondary school with no worthwhile qualifications (Ainscow, 2020), whilst non-completion of upper-secondary education and failing to achieve an upper-secondary qualification reduces young people’s labour market prospects, leading to economic and social marginalisation (Albæk et al., 2015). Recent comparative studies have found that especially young people with lower educational levels are most vulnerable in labour market situations (Rokicka, Unt, Täht & Nizalova, 2018), whilst the economic and educational inequalities that reduce the life chances of young people already affected by adverse life circumstances, seem hard to overcome (Sammons, Toth, & Sylva, 2015). In this climate, Nilsson (2010, p. 251) reports an international increase of academic and political interest in VET as a “potentially powerful tool for fostering social inclusion”, largely due to its ability to bridge the school-to-work transition through apprenticeship, making young people ‘insiders’ in the labour market and counteracting unemployment. In the context of deepening socio-economic challenges and polarization of socio-economic possibilities, VET has a potential to support youth at risk for social exclusion (Piketty, 2013, 2019; Tirole, 2016; Banerjee, Duflo 2019). At the same time, VET may itself become a source of social exclusion due to mismatches between provided skills and competencies and changing labour marked needs, as well as problems concerning the quality of VET provision (European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN), 2020). To gain insight in strengths and weaknesses of VET-trajectories across four different countries, 80 young people aged 16-29 were interviewed about their experiences, providing authentic accounts of how the young people understand and negotiate their opportunities, prospects and limitations, and the contextual factors influencing these issues. With reference to Allan (2009), from an inclusive perspective, the young people’s accounts embody an expertise that requires to be acknowledged as such. The article explores the following research questions: In their accounts on their experiences in VET, what do the young people convey about factors that may support and hinder successful completion, and how may this be understood? Through analysing first-hand experiences spanning four countries, the purpose is to develop knowledge that may contribute to strengthening vocational educational trajectories, increasing opportunities for successful completion for young people at risk of social exclusion. 

The study is a qualitative interview study and draws on a sociocultural approach (Florian, Black-Hawkins, & Rouse, 2017b; Säljö, 2016), focussing on the connections between the students’ participation, learning and qualification. The sociocultural approach is at the basis for the data analysis, enabling the understanding of the role of various social environments that young people participate in, and how this influences their learning trajectories. Young people were recruited through contacting school administrations in all four countries. Teachers sent out the invitations to participate in the study to students in challenging situations, who were at risk of drop-out and subsequent social exclusion. The schools also sent out invitations to former students who had dropped out. The sample consists of 80 young people (age 16-29), who are at risk of social exclusion, divided equally over the four participating countries. The research participants were all current students in VET, either in school or in an apprenticeship, or had previously been enrolled in VET and dropped out. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in the spring of 2022. The interview guide was similar in all participating countries, providing joint guidelines for data construction. Questions were built on a chronology of past, present, and future, and touched upon biographical background, positive and negative experiences in VET, social participation, coping, and thoughts about the future. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was carried out individually in each country. During this period, the countries conducted the analyses in close collaboration and continuous dialogue. The analyses were carried out in the language used in the interviews, following a protocol common for all countries, characterised by deductive and inductive approaches. The first phase of the analysis consisted of familiarising with the data, both individually in each country, as well as across the four countries, followed by coding the material based on the categories in the interview guide. The second phase generated themes that emerged in each country, classified into supporting and hindering factors for completion. In the third and final phase of the analysis, supporting and hindering factors are further explored, indicating that the young people indicate relationships as the main factor influencing their opportunities for successful completion in VET.

A central issue concerning factors supporting and hindering successful completion in VET is connected to relationships. Across the four nations, the analyses of the young people’s accounts convey that relationships with family, with teachers and peers at school, and with supervisors and co-workers in the workplace, influence the experience of belonging, motivation, and self-esteem, indicating a direct impact on a student’s chance of completing VET. The analysis shows that the young people’s accounts may be understood as narratives on participation and non-participation. Following Florian, Black-Hawkins, and Rouse (2017), participation concerns all members of a school’s community. Furthermore, participation and barriers to participation are viewed as interconnected and ongoing processes, supporting or hindering educational achievement (Florian, Black-Hawkins, & Rouse, 2017a). Raising academic achievement for all students is concerned with responses to diversity, creating equitable opportunities to participate in the learning community, regardless of student background and characteristics (Florian, 2015). The analysis shows that experiencing barriers to participation in a school’s community – albeit primary, lower-secondary, or upper-secondary and VET – is detrimental to the young people’s sense of belonging, motivation and self-esteem, and a hindering factor for successful completion in VET. The analysis will be discussed within a social capital framework (Field, 2017) from the following perspectives: 1) Narratives on trust and confidence - A social capital framework, 2) Promoting participation – Building inclusive social infrastructures. The discussion will pursuit the argument that VET’s development of students’ social capital may provide a factor stimulating resilience in students, so that they «get on and get ahead through the connections they have with other people» (Allan & Persson, 2020, p. 153).

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