This ethnographic study investigates the experiences of those learning tailoring and trading in Freetown, Sierra Leone via apprenticeships, other on-the-job training or Technical and Vocational Education and Training programs (TVET). I examine these forms of occupational training by investigating the practices underway, how knowledge transmission occurs, as well as why learners engage with and what they get out of these activities. I consider how the job learners utilise occupational training as a manner of increasing social, cultural and economic capital in Bourdieu's sense of those terms to navigate the urban labour market.     I find that the learners aspire fundamentally to social mobility and a sense of self-worth. To achieve this, they use four main tactics: flexibility, reframing, co-operation and diligence. However, I find all tactics are developed in response to greatly circumscribed opportunities to obtain a good and stable income, and increased social status, due to structural inequality. Local political neoliberal discourse on youth unemployment emphasising diligence, belies these inequities and the limited ways in which social mobility is within the individual’s control. Hence, I argue, a focus on training without addressing structural inequality is inadequate.     As the training usually does not lead to paid and reliable employment, I argue it serves more fundamentally as a form of moral education and a vehicle for personal and social development. I argue it helps develop certain personal moral traits and alleviate society's concern about immoral "idle youth". Further, that it helps develop what I term resilience capital; that is, the hard-working and stubborn disposition developed by reframing previous experiences of adversity, which may later assist the individual in acquiring other forms of capital.     Although not its main focus, this study also seeks to contribute to academic scholarship through developing our understanding of knowledge transmission. I find that the process of knowledge transmission is fundamentally social and shaped by hierarchy, subjective positions of power, the inculcation of moral and ethical values, and more dependent for success on various forms of capital than it might at first appear.

El presente proyecto se genera a partir de la preocupación que afecta a muchos estudiantes universitarios de los últimos ciclos que no cuentan con experiencia laboral, debido a los amplios requisitos que solicitan las empresas; la falta de capacitación previa en los procesos de reclutamiento y selección para obtener el puesto de practicante, así como la dificultad de conseguir cursos que se relacionen con su profesión y que sean económicamente accesibles. Es por eso que nuestro proyecto apuesta por la creación de una aplicación llamada My First Practice, en donde estudiantes de últimos ciclos podrán potenciar sus habilidades y especializarse más en el sector de su interés laboral, a través de la experiencia de estudiantes que ya se encuentran trabajando y, junto a la colaboración de pymes, puedan cumplir con el perfil que las empresas desean. Este proyecto consta de dos etapas; en la primera etapa se validó el problema mediante entrevistas a nuestro público objetivo y especialistas; la segunda etapa se realizó se validó la solución con la finalidad de conocer si nuestro proyecto resulta ser viable y escalable en su ejecución. El diferencial de la aplicación My First Practice está basada en su tecnología, una bolsa de trabajo solo con ofertas de pymes, cursos de especialización y el aprendizaje de la mano con estudiantes con experiencia laboral; el conjunto de todas estas características brinda un modelo de negocio que busca facilitar la obtención de las primeras prácticas preprofesionales. / This project is generated by the concern that affects many university students of the last cycles who do not have work experience, due to the extensive requirements requested by companies; the lack of prior training in the recruitment and selection processes to obtain the position of practitioner, as well as the difficulty of obtaining courses that are related to their profession and that are economically accessible. That is why our project supports the creation of an application called My First Practice, where final cycle students can enhance their skills and specialize more in the sector of their work interest, through the experience of students who are already working and, together with the collaboration of SMEs, can meet the profile that companies want. This project consists of two stages; in the first stage the problem was validated through interviews with our target audience and specialists; the second stage the solution was validated in order to know if our project turns out to be viable and scalable in its execution. The differential of the My First Practice application is based on its technology, a job board only with offers from SMEs, specialization courses and hand-in-hand learning with students with work experience; the set of all these characteristics provides a business model that seeks to facilitate the obtaining of the first pre-professional practices. / Trabajo de investigación

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