The gender dimension of vocational education – boys in the Danish VET system

Zusammenfassung

Dual systems of vocational education and training (VET) are organised around the principle of vocations. The strong vocationalism links VET closely with working life and guides the students’ transitions to employment. However, the future role of vocationalism is questioned. Young peoples’ life courses are becoming increasingly destandardised and individualised, and this contradicts the highly standardised pathways and identities offered by the vocations in VET. The chapter examines this challenge for the Danish dual VET system based on a longitudinal study of male students in the car mechanics programme. The students’ narratives demonstrate a rich diversity of meanings of the vocation for these students’ life histories, family relations and peer group engagement. For the students, car mechanics was not just an education or a job. It appeared as a complex configuration of vocational and gender identities, membership of a skilled occupation, peer and family leisure and a future image of a male breadwinner. Masculinity is deeply integrated in the meaning of becoming a car mechanic, and this helps to explain the continued strength and attractiveness of this vocation for boys in the VET system. It also helps explain the stability of the traditional gender order in VET. Therefore, the future of the vocations in the dual system of VET depends not only on the ‘functional fit’ between the dual VET system and the employment system. It also depends on the cultural values of vocations in relation to gender and social class.