Formação e trabalho: ponte ou abismo? o papel da escolarização na vida dos jovens

Abstract

Brazil features in the international arena as the world's sixth largest economy, but, paradoxically, it still presents social deficits, especially in Education. The largest portion of the population is composed by people from 15 to 29 years of age. That portion corresponds to 26.4% of the total population. Specifically, young people aged 18 to 24 years of age are devoid of any public policy or any government structure that could support them in their integration into the labor market. This study seeks to understand the importance of the school in the lives of the youngsters from 18 to 24 years of age who currently work. It aims to verify what relations (if any), similarities and differences exist between the school environment and the labor market. The main issue this research intends to investigate is: is there any synergy between the school environment and the world of work, from the standpoint of young people with regard to its insertion in the labor market? By means of a field research, the study sought to bring up the actual reality of young people working in supermarkets. Field survey, focus group and personal life oral history were the techniques used in the empirical research. The results showed that from the group of young people surveyed 75% entered the labor market before the age of 15, 50% already have their own families, and only 16.67% attended the college level. Therefore, for the majority of them there is not a relation between the basic school and the world of work. The relevance of the school for the life of each individual has to do with his/her subjective personal appropriation, dependent on how he/she articulates its immediate concrete life with the knowledge acquired inside and outside the classroom. It was possible to identify personal characteristics and survival strategies adopted by those young individuals who circumvent the conditions of the pseudo-education they have access to and their family's social-economic situation, through the use of behavioral resources such as adaptation, flexibility and relating to each other to stay in the world of work.