Much of the literature on the transition of young people from school was undertaken at a time when employment opportunities for young people were quantitively and qualititavely different from the 1980's. This thesis uses data collected in a longitudinal study in order to examine the youth transition in the 1980's. The young people whose experiences are studied, follow various post-sixteen routes. Not all the young people in this study have direct personal experience of unemployment, yet high levels of youth unemployment in a local labour market are shown to have far reaching consequences. On an empirical level, this thesis makes a number of contributions to sociological and social-psychological knowledge of the transitional period. It examines the relationship between schooling and the local labour market, paying particular attention to the development of occupational aspirations. It looks at the development of work attitudes and shows how young people may develop "image maintenance" strategies in order to maintain their aspirations in the face of adversity. On a theoretical level, the thesis enhances sociological understanding by using an experiencial dimension to bridge the gap between the structural approaches which are often neglectful of the effects of human action and interpretive approaches which are sometimes guilty of neglecting the very real constraints on action. In doing so, it goes some way towards bringing together theoretical traditions which have long been seen as irreconcilable.

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The transition from education to the labour market is a constant theme for sociological investigation, but the study of occupational choice itself has occupied a peripheral place in the theory and research literature for the past two decades. Of particular concern here, neither extant theories of occupational choice nor the contemporary youth studies literature offer satisfactory accounts of the patterns of girls' aspirations and the social processes in which these are embedded. It is argued here that occupational choice processes are a critical switch in the social reproduction of gender relations. Specifically situated subjects construct a transitions biography from a range of legitimated and concretely available alternatives. The possibilities are specified through the terms of gender discourse which, in describing the confluence of circumstances and understandings, represents the social space in which girls are positioned and position themselves across time. A model of the modalities of gender relations is developed and explored through a study of primarily working class girls aged 11-14 and 14-16 between 1983-1986 who were attending three inner London comprehensives. The data were collected by cross-sectional survey (N = 169) and interview (N=61) and by longitudinal interview (N=37). These girls see occupational structure in highly gendered and partial terms, corresponding to the specific social worlds they inhabit. Over time, perspectives and aspirations focus increasingly on female-typed jobs. Within this, their expectations reflect what is judged realistically available. Such processes of gendered closure are modified by educational achievement and by schooling milieu in relation with family and cultural context. Subject specialisation fixes the course of these processes, since options are generally chosen with current aspiration/ expectation in mind. In sum, gendered transitions across the secondary schooling years are shaped not only institutionally but also socially and culturally by girls' personal attempts to resolve the contradictory puzzle of production/reproduction relations under modern patri3 archy and in the light of the resources at their disposal. Most trajectories inevitably prefigure accommodative arrangements and do not threaten social reproduction processes, but this does not imply non-critical and automatic consent. The potential for critical consciousness is fostered by various cross-pressures in the specific configurations of girls' lives, but the partial insights they open up are held in check both ideologically and through social-educational selection/ allocation.

Esta dissertação, de caráter exploratório, se insere no campo dos estudos sobre a juventude. O principal objetivo foi investigar como os jovens, de ambos os sexos, oriundos de famílias dos estratos populares na ilha de Santiago, em Cabo Verde, vivem a transição da escola para o trabalho em um contexto de crescente exigência das qualificações escolares e profissionais na busca de acesso ao mercado de trabalho. Secundariamente, buscou-se compreender os sentidos e significados da qualificação profissional na vivência dessa fase de transição. O trabalho de campo baseou-se numa abordagem qualitativa e foi realizado durante o mês de janeiro de 2009. Após a observação das interações entre os jovens na escola - Centro de Formação Profissional da Variante -, e as conversas informais mantidas em vários espaços (dentro e fora da escola), foram realizadas entrevistas, através da aplicação de um formulário, com questões abertas e fechadas, inteiramente preenchido pelo pesquisador. Foram entrevistados 60 jovens, com idades variando entre 18 e 28 anos, que freqüentavam o curso de qualificação profissional. O recurso a esse método correspondeu à intenção de captar, através das percepções dos próprios jovens, a diversidade dos seus percursos na vivência da transição escola-trabalho. Para compreender tal diversidade, forjada em um permanente processo de aprendizagem, foi utilizado o conceito de socialização na perspectiva de Peter Berger e Thomas Luckmann. As noções de prova e de suporte de Danilo Martuccelli foram importantes para compreender a heterogeneidade desses jovens, diante dos desafios enfrentados nessa fase em que buscam se constituir como indivíduos. / This exploratory dissertation targets the study of youth. The key objective of the study was to research on how young people, both sexes, from low income families in Santiago island, in Cape Verde, live the transition from school to work in context of a growing demand for educational and professional qualifications while pursuing the access to labor market. Secondarily, it sought to understand the meaning and significance of professional qualifications for young people within this transitional moment. The field work lied on qualitative studies methods and it was carried out during the month of January 2009. After observing the interaction between young people at the school setting Centro de Formação Profissional da Variante -, and having some informal talks in and out of the school setting, some interviews were carried out by applying an interview protocol form, with open as well as closed questions, fully filled by the researcher. Sixty people aged 18-28 who were enrolled the professional qualifying courses were interviewed. The use of this method was to capture the diversity of the young people school-work transition experience through the perception of these young people themselves. To understand such diversity, built in a permanent learning process, the socialization concept by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckamann was applied. The concepts of proof and support by Danilo Martuccelli were important to understand the heterogeneity of these young people in the course of the challenges they face within the process of turning themselves into individuals.

Esta dissertação, de caráter exploratório, se insere no campo dos estudos sobre a juventude. O principal objetivo foi investigar como os jovens, de ambos os sexos, oriundos de famílias dos estratos populares na ilha de Santiago, em Cabo Verde, vivem a transição da escola para o trabalho em um contexto de crescente exigência das qualificações escolares e profissionais na busca de acesso ao mercado de trabalho. Secundariamente, buscou-se compreender os sentidos e significados da qualificação profissional na vivência dessa fase de transição. O trabalho de campo baseou-se numa abordagem qualitativa e foi realizado durante o mês de janeiro de 2009. Após a observação das interações entre os jovens na escola - Centro de Formação Profissional da Variante -, e as conversas informais mantidas em vários espaços (dentro e fora da escola), foram realizadas entrevistas, através da aplicação de um formulário, com questões abertas e fechadas, inteiramente preenchido pelo pesquisador. Foram entrevistados 60 jovens, com idades variando entre 18 e 28 anos, que freqüentavam o curso de qualificação profissional. O recurso a esse método correspondeu à intenção de captar, através das percepções dos próprios jovens, a diversidade dos seus percursos na vivência da transição escola-trabalho. Para compreender tal diversidade, forjada em um permanente processo de aprendizagem, foi utilizado o conceito de socialização na perspectiva de Peter Berger e Thomas Luckmann. As noções de prova e de suporte de Danilo Martuccelli foram importantes para compreender a heterogeneidade desses jovens, diante dos desafios enfrentados nessa fase em que buscam se constituir como indivíduos. / This exploratory dissertation targets the study of youth. The key objective of the study was to research on how young people, both sexes, from low income families in Santiago island, in Cape Verde, live the transition from school to work in context of a growing demand for educational and professional qualifications while pursuing the access to labor market. Secondarily, it sought to understand the meaning and significance of professional qualifications for young people within this transitional moment. The field work lied on qualitative studies methods and it was carried out during the month of January 2009. After observing the interaction between young people at the school setting Centro de Formação Profissional da Variante -, and having some informal talks in and out of the school setting, some interviews were carried out by applying an interview protocol form, with open as well as closed questions, fully filled by the researcher. Sixty people aged 18-28 who were enrolled the professional qualifying courses were interviewed. The use of this method was to capture the diversity of the young people school-work transition experience through the perception of these young people themselves. To understand such diversity, built in a permanent learning process, the socialization concept by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckamann was applied. The concepts of proof and support by Danilo Martuccelli were important to understand the heterogeneity of these young people in the course of the challenges they face within the process of turning themselves into individuals.