Through time the vision of a school for all has been robust, albeit subject for discussion, partial and in the process of becoming. The comprehensive school in the Nordic countries has gradually widened its scope and attempted to include all students regardless of residential place, social background, gender, ethnicity, ability, and attainment. In conjunction with integrating processes, ever-increasing mixtures of internal differential structures have developed; special educational needs provision and a range of alternative schemes, in which groups of students in various manners are connected to and disconnected from the schools’ curricula, cultures, and communities. The aim of this paper is to investigate and compare current alternative strand of courses within vocational education and their collaboration with workplaces in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Such courses, as for instance offered at production schools (DK), ordinary upper secondary schools (NO) and the Individual Program at ‘Gymnasieskolan’ (SE) are often linked to extended workplace practices. The main question addressed in this contribution is how these courses give form, meaning, purpose, and future directions to the ongoing construction of a school for all? In what ways do they contribute to the inclusion and exclusion of students in education and society?