Lived experience of youth in vocational schools: “I stopped focusing on my past and started living the present so I could reach the future”

This study examines the lived experience of 30 vocational education students in Israel. This examination is important in light of international research asserting vocational schools to be spaces of social exclusion and given the relative lack of social work research regarding vocational schools. The findings of the study revealed four main themes: the dynamics of “working students” who contribute to their own and their family's livelihood; a history of social exclusion in academic schools prior to transitioning to vocational schools; experiences of exploitation and rights violation by employers, caregivers, and other adults; everyday coping strategies in the face of social exclusion. These four themes are analyzed, portraying the unique characteristics of youth in vocational schools facing social exclusion. The importance of examining vocational schools by social workers in light of these schools being spaces of social exclusion populated by marginalized youth is discussed.