ABSTRACT
The first empirical chapter reports findings from research in English further education, preparing young people for male-dominated occupations in engineering and professional construction. These are areas where technological change has been relatively rapid, and workplaces can provide opportunities to learn that will not be available in college settings. With employers prepared to plan training for colleges’ best employees, these young people appear to have the most to gain from technical education and its work placements, suggesting potential for ‘technical elite’ formation. Yet at higher education levels, judgments of vocational and working-class students are positioned within an academic framework that leads to negative perceptions of their worth and reinforces their marginal position in higher education. This suggests that, far from enabling entry to professional elites, following non-university routes has the potential to disadvantage these students in comparison with university graduates.
