Abstract
Today’s society is characterized by high unemployment, a prevailing trust in and demands for an academic degree, and an emphasis on the individual’s own responsibility for their educational choices. This study aims to examine adults’ vocational education choices, their intentions in connection with municipal adult education (MAE) studies, and how this relates to identity formation. The study is based on 18 interviews and compares students from two vocational MAE training programmes in assistant nursing and floor laying. The analysis has identified different pathways concerning adult students’ decisions to enrol in municipal adult education and a specific vocational education and training (VET) programme. We see educational choices and paths in terms of underlying causes or as forward-looking rationalities. The results show that the process of identity formation is larger than simply one of vocational becoming within a vocational community of practice, since MAE studies involve a student’s whole being, including both their personal identity trajectories and their vocational identity formation. With this article we hope to provide a foundation for a pedagogical discussion about student intentions, focusing on how different subjectivities affect students with regard to their future vocational becoming.
Highlights
According to the OECD (2020), the demands of the twenty-first century make lifelong learning a central concept when educational issues are discussed
Studies that focus on vocational formation, in education or working life, run the risk of missing out on aspects of which initial driving force(s) drew the student towards a specific education programme or what influences the student’s vocational identity formation (Billett, 2011; Hägerström, 2004)
What this article tries to understand is why adult students engage in specific educational practices, and both defines and nuances the rationalities behind students’ choice of vocational pathway
Summary
According to the OECD (2020), the demands of the twenty-first century make lifelong learning a central concept when educational issues are discussed. Sweden has a long tradition of adult education, and students in municipal adult education (MAE) comprise 4% of the adult population aged 20–64 (SNAE, 2017). This makes Sweden one of the countries with the highest numbers of adults participating in adult education. The demands placed on education are constantly increasing. Knocke and Hertzberg (2000) state that, today, all occupations require upper secondary education or a degree. Given this increasing belief in education, it is low-educated citizens who are vulnerable in today’s labour market. Enrolling in MAE could mean a second chance for those who have been unable to complete upper secondary education, or for newly arrived migrants who lack education (Hägersten, 2004)
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