General description

Vocational schools in Swiss dual VET have many peculiarities. Under federal mandate, they are managed by Cantons, but have to follow professional associations training programs. Many teachers are also active in the profession they teach. This is one of many reasons why education and market reality are tightly bounded. Finally, while firms select apprentices, vocational schools have to provide one to two days a week of class, and to make sure that all apprentices receive the necessary knowledge for their field. Yet technical knowledge and know-how is not sufficient to become professional. Less formal competences are essentials in the professional affiliation process. Soft skills or professional habitus (Bourdieu, 1972) are often what allows one to make a carrier. Getting those skills and fully endorsing the professional habitus may be difficult for some categories, as for instance foreigners and, in many professions, women. Depending on the firm, the training reality can greatly vary: for instance, where one is trained to make a carrier, another is hired to accomplish simple tasks. Being the only place where apprentices of a same domain have the chance to receive the same education, vocational schools may therefore have a strong impact on apprentice’s socio-professional integration. Our intent is precisely to investigate the role of vocational schools with regard to professional affiliation.

Theoretical framework

The professional affiliation is a complex notion, based on several dimensions. Commonly, it refers to the fact of being a professional in a specific field. Moreover, it also define both self-identification and recognition by others as belonging to a professional community. Castel (1995) sees professional affiliation as a fundamental dimension of integration, not only professional but also social. This concept indeed has a close relationship with the professional identity (Dubar, 2000; Sainsaulieu, 1985), in the sense of interiorizing given soft skills and professional culture. Finally, there is a strong link between professional affiliation and the concept of professional habitus (Bourdieu, 1972: this concept allows to understand norms, codes and professional values, and  to display the mechanisms of inequality and social reproduction).

The interest of the concept of professional affiliation is his transitive meaning, which should help us to avoid individualization of problematics. The fundamental questions are not how the apprentices joins, identifies, integrates, but what are the logics underlying the dual vocational training enabling them or not to do so.

Social sciences are much interested in school as an institution of social reproduction (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1970; Baudelot & Estabelet, 1971, Reay, 2006). Many studies have illustrated how, outside the school curriculum, a hidden curriculum limits the field of possibilities through differentiated socialization process (Giroux, 2001; Damla Kentli 2009). The challenge here is to see if and how, by what logic and what norms, hidden curricula exist in vocational school.

Research questions:

·      What role do professional school play in the professional affiliation process ?

·      What are the underlying mecanisms in vocational schools, that could support or hamper professional affiliation of apprentices ? 

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