This paper explores vocational learning and labour market integration among immigrant mechanics in Sweden’s car repair sector, with particular attention to the relationship between informal skill formation and formal vocational education and training (VET). Although immigrants are highly represented in automotive workshops—especially in small, independent garages—their vocational pathways, competence development, and access to recognised qualifications remain largely invisible in VET research. The overall aim of the study is to analyse how immigrant mechanics acquire vocational competence, how their skills are recognised or marginalised, and how technological change reshapes conditions for inclusion within the Swedish VET landscape.

The study addresses three research questions:

1. How do immigrant mechanics access and participate in formal and informal forms of vocational learning in Sweden?

2. How do technological transformations in the automotive sector reconfigure competence requirements and learning opportunities for immigrant workers and workshop owners?

3. What role does the Swedish VET system play—or fail to play—in recognising and supporting informally acquired vocational skills?

The analysis is theoretically grounded in Erving Goffman’s frame theory, which conceptualises frames as interpretive structures through which individuals make sense of work, learning, and institutional encounters. This perspective allows for an examination of how vocational competence is framed, negotiated, and evaluated in workplace settings shaped by migration, regulation, and technological change. Particular attention is paid to frames of learning through practice, economic precarity, and technological adaptation, revealing how these frames intersect with institutional definitions of “legitimate” vocational knowledge within VET.

Methodologically, the study is based on a qualitative research design using seven in-depth interviews with immigrant mechanics working in car repair workshops in two major Swedish cities. Participants include both employees and workshop owners with diverse migration backgrounds. The interview material was analysed thematically using frame analysis. Data saturation was reached as narratives converged around shared experiences of learning, work organisation, and encounters with education and training institutions.

The findings show that vocational competence among immigrant mechanics is predominantly developed outside formal VET structures. Learning takes place through informal apprenticeships, observation, and repeated practice in workshops, which function as alternative sites of vocational education. Social networks—particularly co-ethnic ties—play a decisive role in providing access to training opportunities and employment, compensating for limited recognition of prior learning and qualifications. Economic precarity is framed by participants as a necessary investment, where low-paid or unpaid work is accepted as a strategy for skill acquisition and future labour market stability. At the same time, rapid digitalisation and the increasing dominance of software-based diagnostics challenge these informal learning trajectories. Access to advanced training, proprietary technologies, and certification is uneven and often restricted to larger, brand-authorised workshops, reinforcing stratified patterns within the VET and labour market system. The paper argues that current VET arrangements insufficiently acknowledge practice-based and transnational vocational knowledge, resulting in forms of subordinate inclusion for immigrant mechanics. The study concludes that VET systems must expand validation practices and develop flexible, practice-oriented training pathways that bridge informal learning and formal certification. Such reforms are crucial if VET is to support inclusive skill formation and sustainable vocational careers in technologically transforming industries.

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