Precarity and the social mobility nexus for young Roma in vocational education and training

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to demonstrate the analytical potential of initial vocational education and training (iVET) in the debate on the costs of social mobility. It is based on extensive qualitative fieldwork with over 250 young people in Romania’s iVET (around 20% of whom were Roma). Central to the discourses of young Roma are the experiences of discrimination, the absence of a ‘vocational habitus’ and an awareness of credential inflation, despite the social and economic costs of attending iVET. The research calls for a recalibration of the narrative on social mobility, in an economic context where work is becoming increasingly precarious.

KEYWORDS:

• VET
• Romania
• Roma
• social mobility
• employment
• precarious work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and labour Mobility at The IX International Conference of the European Association of Regional & Local Authorities fo lifelong learning (2019).

2. See the 2017 JVET Special Issue on ‘Race and Ethnicity’ and the upcoming special issue of The Journal of Vocational Education and Training.

3. Despite the name, colleges are at secondary level. They combine high school classes with a focus on technology (which makes up the majority), with classes in initial iVET.

4. 200 RON (40 euro), representing 10% of the minimum net salary.

5. Secured space and mediated the access to pupils. They never attended the discussions.

6. The term ‘non-Roma’ is used, although we acknowledge that ethnicity is fluid and hard to reflect in binary terms.

7. ‘ subjective but not individual system of internalised structures, schemes of perception, conception, and action common to all members of the same group or class’ (Bourdieu 1977, 86).

8. Master craftsperson.

9. The externalisation of risks is obvious. Before 2020, companies pushed for the introduction of a legal obligation for the young people to work for them for at least three years after completing school, in order to recuperate the investment made in training. Yet, as the pandemic unfolded, companies claimed they could not honour their obligations to those in iVET and requested financial aid from the State and the European Commission.

10. Many imagined one, or very few, workplaces throughout the course of their lives.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Unitatea Executiva pentru Finantarea Invatamantului Superior, a Cercetarii, Dezvoltarii si Inovarii [PCE 27/2022, PN-III-P4-PCE-2021-0366].