Abstract
In this study, we focus on the role of Dutch Level 2 senior vocational training in care work in relation to the prospects and options it provides for students who follow this programme. Similar to the ‘care girls’ from previous studies our participants are young women from lower-class backgrounds who aspire to various jobs in the care sector, but are steered away from their original aspirations by their vocational training programme. The major difference between this research and previous studies is that we examine the Dutch institutional and broader structural context of care work. In the Netherlands, there is a lack of job opportunities for Level 2 graduates. This enables us to study the impact of limited job opportunities in the making of ‘care girls’. We explore whether this situation results in the reproduction of inequalities (and if so, how), or whether it represents a window of opportunity through which these girls can escape from their initial cycle of disadvantage if their goal of becoming a ‘care girl’ does not materialise.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 238-254 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Journal of Vocational Education & Training |
Volume | 75 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 15 Oct 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2023 |
Funding
This work was supported by the European Commission, 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development [grant number: SSH-2012-1-320223]. Many thanks to the young women, the Randstad School and the internship places for participating in our study. We would also like to thank Maurice Crul, Liesbet van Zoonen and the anonymous reviewers of this journal for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve the quality of the paper.
Funders | Funder number |
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Randstad School | |
European Commission | 320223 |
7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development | SSH-2012-1-320223 |