Adults between school and working life

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine what it means to be a student in a vocational education and training programme in the municipal adult education system in Sweden and how the interplay between school and working life affects students’ identity formation. To achieve this, 12 students from two different programmes have been interviewed at the end of their education: one group of assistant nurses and one group of floor layers. The results show that learning a vocation and developing a vocational identity is a journey through different practices with whom students both identify and dis-identify themselves. In these processes of identification, students can also undergo personal development in a broader sense or develop an identity as an adult. Understanding adult student identities, in particular how they see themselves as learners, can be beneficial for those working with and in adult learning. Furthermore, what the school teaches may conflict with the expectations and daily demands of working life, creating a divide between practices. Understanding the divide between school and working life, and how students are affected by this divide, can also facilitate the understanding of their vocational identity development process.