Making choices: an investigation into the factors which affect young peoples' decisions not to progress to higher education after following a vocational pathway in upper secondary education

This paper is based on a British Academy mixed method research project which investigated the reasons why young people on an Advanced level vocational pathway choose not to progress to Higher Education (HE). For many predominantly middle class young people, on an academic pathway in upper secondary education, progression to HE is generally well understood and expected. For those on a vocational pathway this trajectory, or even the notion of a trajectory, was more problematic. This paper will build on the concept of `imagined futures' (Ball et al 2000) to explore the shifting (and sometimes disjunctive) positions of respondents as they moved across education and workplace boundaries. This leads to a problematisation of notions of transitions and trajectories and the over expectations of linearity in understanding these young peoples' lives.