“Trades and Aides in Alberta”: Exploring Social Mobility

• In Event: Social Issues and Content Domains in Workplace Learning

Abstract

Our paper examines two high school work experience programs that focus on rural youth: The first encourages students to consider work in skilled trades, while the second encourages them to become qualified as health care aides. Since both programs are seen as a way of helping youth complete high school, this study examines whether youth in the program are, in fact, ‘at risk’, and to what extent these school-based programs are able to foster social mobility. Our analysis of interviews with youth is informed by academic literature related to social mobility, gender, and rural youth. This paper contributes to discussion about the progressive possibilities of schools through a focus on how programs can most effectively disrupt reproductive processes.

Authors

• Alison Taylor, University of Alberta

• Laura Autumn Servage, University of Alberta

• Zane Hamm, University of Alberta