This book explores how the changing nature of work intersects with and influences young
people¿s views on their future. As an increasingly precarious service sector overtakes
traditional industrial work vocational education and training (VET) is held up as a panacea
for poverty alleviation youth unemployment and economic growth. However the views of young
people in VET themselves concerning their own work and aspirations have largely been ignored.
Based on interviews and focus groups conducted with over 250 young people in VET in Romania
this book examines the types of subjectivities that are generated in the processes by which
they try to make sense of future and the meanings of work. In doing so the author identifies
three ideological layers that frame their views: arguing that while the young people
interviewed hold ¿conventional¿ aspirations for stability and predictability they were visibly
influenced by neoliberal beliefs in agency experimentation and short termism. Ultimately a
layer of low expectations crystallises unvoiced concerns over a troubling future. In
highlighting young people¿s voices this pioneering book calls for a recalibration of the
emphasis on VET in Romania. It will appeal to students and scholars of youth studies the
sociology of work vocational education and training and European studies.
