Entry into labour: The experience of young adults in Brazil

ENTRY INTO LABOUR: T H E E X P E R I E N C E O F YOUNG ADULTS IN BRAZIL C A N D I D O A. G O M E S Abstract -- This study focuses on the experience of young adults employed in the tertiary sector in Brasflia. The results show that young people are prepared for work by on-the-job training and nonformal education; schooling is mainly an indicator of trainability. Entry into the labour force reinforces social differences in family background and schooling. The results tend to support the moderate version of classical theory with regard to the nature of school/work relationships. In the context of the conflict paradigm, the data run contrary to both reproductionism and the radical critique of this view. From the comparative standpoint youth is an underprivileged group in the labour market, regardless of sex, socioeconomic status and country of residence. Despite these variations, societies are stratified by age groups. Zusammenfassung -- Diese Studie konzentriert sich auf die Erfahrungen junger, im Dienstleistungsbereich besch~iftigter Erwachsener in Brasilia. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dab junge Leute durch praktische Ausbildung im Betrieb und nichtformelle Erziehung auf ihre Arbeit vorbereitet werden; der Schulunterricht gibt haupts~ichlich Hinweise auf die Lernf'~ihigkeit. Der Eintritt in die Arbeitswelt verst~irkt die im famili~iren Bereich und hinsichtlich der Schulbildung bestehenden sozialen Unterschiede. Die Ergebnisse tendieren dazu, die gem~il3igte Version der klassischen Theorie im Hinblick auf die Art der Beziehungen zwischen Schule und Arbeit zu unterstiJtzen. Im Zusammenhang mit dem Konfliktparadigma, stehen die Daten sowohl einer Spiegelung als auch einer radikalen Kritik an dieser Auffassung entgegen. Vom vergleichenden Standpunkt aus ist die Jugend eine unterpriviligierte Gruppe auf dem Arbeitsmarkt ungeachtet des Geschlechts, des sozial6konomischen Status' und Aufenthaltslandes. Abgesehen von diesen Variationen sind die Gesellschaften nach Altersgruppen geschichtet. R6sum6 -- Cette 6tude se focalise sur les exprriences faites par de jeunes adultes Brasflia dans le secteur tertiaire. Les rrsultats obtenus montrent qu.e la formation en cours d'emploi et 1'rducation non formelle prrparent les jeunes au travail, que la scolarit6 est essentiellement un indicateur d'rducabilitC L'entr~e dans la vie active renforce les diffrrences sociales basres sur le milieu familial et la scolaritC Les r~sultats tendent /~ appuyer la version mod~rre de la throrie classique concernant la nature du rapport 6cole/travail. Darts le contexte du paradigme conflictuel, les donnres vont h l'encontre du reproductionnisme et de la critique radicale de cette rue. Du point de rue comparatif, les jeunes forment un groupe drfavoris6 sur le march6 de I'emploi, indiffrremment de leur sexe, de leur statut socio-rconomique et de leur lieu de rrsidence. Malgr6 ces variations, les socirtrs sont divisres en groupes d'fige. International Review of Education -- Internationale Zeitschrifi fiir Erziehungswissenschaft -Revue lnternationale de P~dagogie 36(4): 393--416, 1990. 9 1990 Unesco Institute for Education and Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. 394 At the Vlth World Congress of Comparative Education (Rio de Janeiro 1987), the World Council of Comparative Education Societies approved an international research program on the education and training of young adults, from a perspective of technological and occupational change. ~ Considering the urgency of this population's problems, especially in contexts where there are an elevated level of unemployment, intermittent employment and changes in occupational structure, this program can be viewed as being highly relevant. On the one hand, the exchange of knowledge and experiences should substantially enrich understanding of the difficulties faced by adolescents and young adults who seek to enter the world of work. On the other hand, given the differences among the countries involved, the program is sufficiently flexible to meet the specific interests and situations of each participating nation. Indeed, a major concern of this research program relates to the question of public policy; one of the proposed investigations will be a collection of recommendations that can be put into practice. In Brazil, the level of knowledge relating to the question is less than would be desirable. In addition to premature labour market entrance, a phenomenon which seriously hampers obligatory schooling, one encounters in Brazil symptoms of youth underemployment. Policies concerning education and vocational training are negatively affected by a lack of information about the nature of specific realities. The literature review presented in the following section reveals that research on the subject leaves many questions unanswered and often fails to focus on crucial issues of public policy. Also, dependence on a limited number of methodological approaches has restricted the type of question that the studies are able to address. Thus, it is necessary to promote deeper understanding through employment of methodologies which until now have been little utilized and through reliance on a broad theoretical perspective in the interpretation of reality. Therefore, the aim of this qualitative study is to clarify issues and to fill gaps in the literature. This work seeks to capture not only facts and figures, but also the respondents' perceptions, through a combination of qualitative and quantitative information. Its basic goal is to analyze the respondents' entry into the world of work and the development of their careers to the moment of the data collection. To obtain these ends, this research focuses on social origins and vocational preparation, as well as on the role of schooling and vocational preparation for work. In addition and in light of the data obtained -- some recommendations for educational policies are formulated. Whenever possible, international comparisons are made, with special consideration given to the situation in some other developing countries. - - 395 Entry into Work in Brazil: A Review of the Literature In Brazil the population tends to enter the labor market early in life, with either a low level of schooling or no schooling whatsoever. This entry, it is known, is a crucial moment, having significant repercussions on all aspects of the individual's active life. The occupational structure has different portals through which people enter at various levels. One who begins unfavorably tends to end up in the same situation. Also, there exists the question of school continuity. Some of the workers remain in school, while others either leave school even before their entry into the world of work or terminate their schooling shortly after beginning to work. In this respect, there exists an old controversy concerning the possibility of competition between schooling and labor activity. For some, work leads to school abandonment, whereas for others work is a precondition for continuation or return to schooling. This controversy is relevant in Brazil because it relates to the question of a fixed minimum age for working, legislated by the Federal Constitution. Without intending an exhaustive review, we consider here a total of 47 studies, which are listed in the Bibliography to this paper, divided into three groups to facilitate analysis: -- studies of the work and education of children and adolescents, based on aggregated data (total: 10); -- studies of the work and education of children and adolescents of a quantitative and qualitative nature, focusing on local and regional levels (total: 23); -- follow-up studies of the vocational career of graduates (providing information on the position of individuals in the labor market), analyses of student groups and other studies (total: 14). Taking these studies as a whole, there is an extreme predominance of quantitative (43) over qualitative (4) investigations. The latter are the most recent, and in only two instances do they incorporate statistical information. The quantitative studies show a healthy tendency to utilize ciata aggregated on the national level (Censuses, National Household Studies and the Annual Report of Social Information). Reflecting the lack of information on the issues in question, a major portion of the studies are descriptive or exploratory in nature. Although a number of works are rigorously developed, very few clearly delineate a theoretical framework and review earlier studies dealing with the same topic. It is not necessary to emphasize that these failings negatively affect the critical accumulation of scientific knowledge and the development of effective public policy. 396 As for the methodologies utilized, the qualitative studies clearly merit greater attention as they make possible a deeper, more profound analysis. Naturally, in my opinion, quantitative and qualitative methods should not be in opposition but should rather complement each other. Since knowledge of national reality is limited, nobody can afford the luxury of failing to knock at any available door. In the light of this collection of studies, with its valuable focus, but also with its serious limitations, what can be concluded concerning the nature of reality? In Brazil the population begins to work early, circumscribed by conditions of poverty. Groups are launched into the labor market in successive 9waves. The earliest waves are composed of those from the lowest SES backgrounds and are directed into the worst positions in the occupational structure. Since a bad beginning tends to limit subsequent professional career development, a large part of the economically active population has its future status strongly tied to the status of its origin. While poor families, generally engaged in manual work, place their members in the labor market to augment their scarce family resources, middle level SES families generally keep their children in school in order to increase the probability of entering the labor market under favorable condit~ns. In this respect, families of different SES levels have different priorities for directing their members to the world of work. In low SES families the head of the family is the first to work, followed first by children over 18 years of age, then by children less than 18 (males before females, the oldest before the youngest), and finally by the female spouse. In families of middle level SES, however, the female spouse is the second to enter the work force, preceded only by her male counterpart, with the oldest children following a rank order from oldest to youngest (males before females). The least privileged groups, which tend to enter the labor market first, are males, reside in rural areas and the least developed regions, are from the lowest SES contingent, have the least amount of schooling, and are children of manual workers. They comprise the first "wave", entering the workforce even before the legal minimum age for employment. In terms of localization within the occupational structure, children and adolescents tend to work an excessive number of hours per week and receive low salaries, rarely covered by social security. Their "jobs" are mainly acquired via informal channels. Their activities are mostly confined to the primary and tertiary sectors of the economy, which means that the majority of these individuals are relegated to what is referred to as the "informal" labor market. Indeed, according to Spindel (1983), for every child or adolescent working in the formal sector, there were 10 employed in the informal sector. However, in spite of these precarious working 397 conditions, unemployment among children and adolescents tends to be significantly greater than that for adults, even in times of prosperity (e.g., Barbosa 1975; Oliveira 1976; Souza 1975). Clearly, there is a need to contribute to the mobility of young people as they search for better employment. But, according to Spindel (1985), there is a tendency in the formal sector to continually raise the employment criteria pertaining to adolescents. Thus, Spindel (1985) concludes that adolescents have become a discardable form of manpower. From a sectoriai point of view, the major passageways for labor market entry in Brazil tend to be through agriculture, commerce and the services. The first absorbs the children and adolescents with the lowest age, schooling and socio-economic status, whereas the levels of these variables are somewhat higher in the tertiary sector. In industry, on the other hand, entry tends to come later, with higher schooling attainments, often occurring after participation in one of the other areas of the economy. It can be inferred, therefore, that industry is the economic sector which is the most selective, in part because of technological factors, and thus it offers little opportunity for those who fail in school (Gomes 1982, 1983, 1986a). Formal schooling, at least in the industrial sector, appears to have little value and, in many respects, its effects do not correspond to those predicted by human capital theory. One encounters, on the other hand, some evidence of a positive impact of nonformal education, although this is probably limited to training which is general in nature (Verhine and Lehmann 1983; Lehmann and Verhine 1986). Thus, employers seem to prefer job candidates who are trainable to those who are already trained (Kuenzer 1985; Salgado 1984). Indeed, the majority of industrial operatives are trained informally, through direct contact with peers and superiors (Gomes 1986a). However, the reality of small firms may be different from that of large enterprises, in that the former appear to be highly dependent on workers who are already trained at the time of employment (Franco 1987). These considerations lead us to discuss the relations between work ~md schooling. One established idea is that work jeopardizes school attendance. In fact, the body of available research indicates that it is impossible to affirm any mechanical relationship between labor and study. No doubt, certain types of work prevent a young person from going to school, robbing him of innumerable opportunities. However, in some circumstances working can favor study. Employment in the informal sector, along with uncertain and poorly paid work in general, especially in agriculture (particularly when not undertaken in conjunction with the family) is also a hindrance to continuing school or to re-entry. Work 398 facilitates access to school only for a small, select group, composed of individuals with stable, formal sector jobs and with family circumstances which allow them control over most of their earnings. It is also necessary for the job to not be too strenuous and the workday to be not too long (Gomes 1986b). Thus the school, so often pictured as the villain of the story, is not, according to existing studies, the major source of harm, although it still deserves at least a portion of the blame. Indeed, a large number of children drop out of school before working. Moreover, schooling is socioeconomically selective. But, compared with poverty, the school renders relatively little harm, although its negative impact cannot be ignored. One notes that an urban industrial society even provides strong incentives for schooling, such as the concept that the school represents a channel to social success, the identification of school attendance with the category "youth" (as opposed to the category "marginal") and evidences, via salaried work, of situations where schooling is required and emphasized (e.g., Spindel 1983; Madeira 1984). Theoretical Perspectives Since entry into. the world of work is highly significant in the social stratification process, one can effectively utilize alternative theoretical perspectives to focus on relations between education, social stratification and income. Although there is a notable plurality of theoretical viewpoints, one can distinguish two basic perspectives: (1) that of the technical-functional approach and (2) the so-called conflict approach, which includes an array of Marxist, neo-Marxist and neo-Weberian theories, in the area of sociology, along with the notion of labor market segmentation, in economics, among others. According to the first perspective, technological change constantly raises the level of skill requirements for jobs and, consequently, the level of educational requirements is raised also. Through this process, in which the school serves as an agent for selecting talented people, society moves towards a state of meritocracy (Clark 1962; Kerr et al. 1960). In addition, education and training can be forms of investment, augmenting productivity. Thus, the higher the levels of schooling and training, the higher the income, making education an instrument for social elevation (Schuitz 1961). This way, schooling is the most important means by which people attain capacities for work. In the weak version of this perspective, school- 399 ing is a signal of the individual capacity to learn on the job. One of the theories included in this perspective considers schooling as a trainability indicator used by employers as a means to select job applicants by cost of training and other criteria (Thurow 1978). Therefore, the most readily trainable applicants would be first in the queue. In general, both versions of this perspective assume that it is relevant for employers to match the more highly trained or easily trainable people with the more exacting jobs. While this perspective posits that the educational process consists basically of obtaining productive skills and knowledge, which leads to selection based on merit, the conflict orientation views education as being in great part a perpetuator of social differences. One of the approaches of this second perspective, the theory of correspondence, sees parental social class, rather than student abilities, as the major conditionate of schooling. Upon arriving in school, students confront a process of differential socialization which prepares them for different work environments, transmitting the skills and forming the attitudes required by the employers (Bowles and Gintis 1976). A series of evidences have been produced which place doubt on the direct relationship between education, on the one hand, and productivity, income and equality of opportunity, on the other. The role of schooling in manpower training would, according to these evidences, be less significant than formerly proclaimed. In line with this reasoning, increases in schooling levels occur as a result of non-economic factors and, in large part, these are self-induced. Thus, education can be viewed, for example, as a credential that permits selection of personnel by the dominant status group, in accordance with socio-cultural characteristics (Collins 1979). Organizations are considered to be arenas for struggles to acquire goods, prestige and power, in which education constitutes an element of selection and control. This sociological view finds a corresponding perspective in the theory of labor market segmentation, given that, in accordance with this latter viewpoint, organizations create different labor markets for different status groups. For example, Doeringer and Piore (1971) identify two lal~or markets distinguished from each other by economic characteristics and worker experiences. In contrast to the secondary labor market, the primary market tends to involve high salaries, good working conditions, job stability and opportunities for career advancement. As a consequence, the role of formal education differs by labor market segment. Because of rigid structural and behavioral inter-segment barriers, it can do Little to move workers from one segment to another. Education, therefore, assumes a dual role: it allocates individuals to occupations as well as to 400 firms and economic areas. These factors circumscribe and mediate the relationship between education and income (e.g., Kalleberg, Wallace and Althauser 1981 ). According to these theoretical positions, it is not crucial for employers to allocate the more highly trained or easily trainable people to the more demanding jobs. Schooling is a signal of people's values, attitudes, and habits. Only secondarily does it function as an indicator of the knowledge and the skills necessary for work performance. In Brazil, the conflict perspective has helped focus attention on the school/work interface. In a critique of reproductionism, Salm (1980) negates the school's subordination to capital, arguing that the latter is selfsufficient in the training of its workforce. Frigotto (1984), however, has a less radical view of the school/capital relationship. This linkage is not direct but, rather, education is a mediator which provides a general knowledge that is articulated with practical, specific learning developed through the productive process. Kuenzer (1985), in turn, built on this point of view, analyzing how the relations of production educate the Worker. According to her conclusion, workers' knowledge does not go beyond c o m m o n sense, and, thus, workers should appropriate knowledge which has been socially produced via the school, as a means of resisting the strategy of dequalification currently propagated by the school, the firm and the society. On the other hand, according to Arroyo (1986), although the worker's right to schooling is important, this represents only a portion of his right to education. The central problem rests with the negation of the worker's fight to produced knowledge, to his/her own culture and to his/her own class identity. Methodology This study was focused on eleven firms of the tertiary sector located in Brasflia, Brazil's capital city. The research approach was qualitative, therefore the firms were not selected to compose a statistically representative sample of their universe. Instead, they were intentionally selected amongst each sub-sector's most typical units, as suggested by a group of government officials and businessmen. The sample studied included the following types of firm: (1) two supermarkets, (2) two car dealers and auto-part shops, (3) two clothing stores, (4) three hotels and (5) two cleaning services firms. The group included two small, five medium and four large enterprises, defined according to the number of employees. In each firm, employees to be interviewed were randomly selected by sex and occupational level (high, medium and low). In the total, sixty-eight 401 16-through-31-year-old employees were interviewed. Interviews were conducted with at least one employer per firm. Field researchers were graduate students in education, especially trained for this purpose. Four instruments were used for data collection: two demographic, general characterization questionnaires (one for employees, one for firms) and two semi-structured interview guides (one for employees, one for employers). Furthermore, interviewers took field notes, which were very important for understanding the organizational context and other features. Results Schooling and Youth Career: an Overview The results reflect the tendency prevalent within the Brazilian population to enter into the labor market at an early age. This is particularly true for males. Data show that males start to work at the median age of 1 3.2 years, whereas the equivalent value for females was 17.2 years (Fig. 1). However, young men tend to leave school at almost the same average age. This means that young men study and work at the same time for a longer Age /' 2x / / 24 / 22 .- 20 I)," " Md I"~T_~)' Ii (.2 ,/ [ I I II~ffo," D,II ' l) __J ()~ i I i , / J ~ Md O, I) II / kl:~= [ )'0 ~|d -- tilt-dish I), - I ~ l d c c l l c I), -- ~lh LIcr {7 I ~1 quartile (), Jrd dccih: ' I) 4 O, ''' II I / '/ " rD ' L //~'~ -- I~"i__~ ~'' / I () I~1 / (~,/ h / / O, / / Idl'"' i2 / / 2t~ IO , I), 2 (I Sch~xll Chit) |.al~r Cnlr) l i n d of .chol~l ;it Ir ~ ()tiN(} Mt~N Dala collcclllm Sch~)l cnlr) t.ab~lr F n d of ~ch,~,ll Chit) ,lllr162162 YOilN(; %OMFN Fig. 1. School attendance and labor entry age by sex. I)ala colICclhln 402 period than young women. The decision to work is closely tied to the questions of age and sex. Age appears to serve as an indicator of physical, emotional and intellectual development and of the roles that family and society expect its members to fulfill. According to the interviews, entry into the world of work is generally improvised, devoid of orientation or defined plans. Economic difficulties are the primary motive for participation in the labor force, along with a desire for independence. Despite this desire, however, the working youth tends to remain dependent on his family. The latter demands a contribution to income,, determines which of its members should work and establishes informal contacts necessary for obtaining employment. The findings also reveal a tendency for youths from more modest origins to be those who have less schooling and who enter the labor market at the earliest age and in the lowest positions. As Fig. 2 shows, the higher the occupational level, the earlier the beginning of school attendance and the longer the time of such an attendance. At the low occupational level, youths have lower median labor entry age -- 13.2 years --, in contrast with 15.7 years for high and medium levels. (The legal minimum age for employment was then 12.) However, independently of social situation, the working youth experiences a form of rite of passage, often starting to work under conditions of exploitation which defy labor legisla- Age O, ,1 // I[I :" II /// 2a ~/ J ] MO ." Md O, 20 ) " III Iq~ ~ " . O~ ,, LTM,, T,; I 12 Io / X / ~ f, Md 4 I), I), / " / I),,/ / . L.:)," / '~ ,~ II ('1), / / l~ o / " Md ' ," /~ , ~ D, [- I), KI'Y MO -D, O~ -O, - O, - [), 2 mcdmn i~ldecilc 91h dcclh" Isl quarlilc MdquarHIc II Sch,~fl Lab~)r cnlr) cnley HIGH End o| ~chool at tl~ndancc & Mb. D I U M Data Sch(nfl collcclion entry LEVELS Labor cnlr) [_OW End of ~r attendance l)ala coIlccilon LEVELS Fig. 2. School attendance and labor entry age by occupational level. 403 tion. In this context, open unemployment is low, since the young people constitute cheap and frequently submissive manpower. Thus, exploitation and the relative ease of access to work go hand in hand, meaning that youth employment often means youth underemployment. Analysis of the schooling trajectory indicates that respondents from the lowest social strata experience high rates of school repetition and dropout. They spend an average of 1.3 years in each grade, and leave school earlier than any other group. Place of residence strongly influences access to schooling, and the quality of education experienced is affected by both residential and SES circumstances. Reacting to social and family demands, respondents tend to enter the labor market without completing a given schooling level or participating in a program for vocational preparation. Youths less favored socially tend to terminate their studies prematurely, whereas the rest, particularly those who have reached a high occupational position, often spend several years working and studying simultaneously. In confronting the research findings with those in the literature, one notes that the characteristics of the sample are similar to those of young people in Brazil and in the Third World in general. Contrary to what is observed in advanced capitalist countries, compulsory education is short, a great part of the population does not complete basic instruction and large numbers of children and adolescents begin to work before the legal minimum age. Many young people who remain in school obtain a poor education because they also work. Moreover, most young people, especially those from low SES backgrounds, choose their work at random, without career plans or adequate vocational guidance. This last tendency, incidentally, is also evident in developed countries. It appears, therefore, that even in distinct social contexts, those who enter work early tend to occupy the lowest rungs of the job structure and thus suffer disadvantages vis-h-vis the other age groups in society (Lipset, Bendix and Maim 1955; Carter 1966; Parnes et at. 1969; Maizels 1970; Kohen et al. 1977). How Young People Learn Their Work Most of the sample subjects did not learn their occupation in school. The role of schooling was limited to indicating the trainability of the job candidate. In high level occupations, the work was generally learned on the job from direct observation or with supervisors, colleagues and parents (when the last worked in or owned the firm). The respondents learned by doing, through trial and error. In a chain of clothing stores, inservice training followed a structured routine: every new salesperson received orientation from a more senior employee. The sales commissions were given to the veteran until the novice had learnt his/her job, which 404 was usually expected to take up to two months. In the study, the area of sales was that in which this form of structured training was most commonplace. Sample members also took in-firm courses in the fields of administration and auto mechanics. Other sources of learning included work in the informal sector and family enterprises, as well as short duration courses (typing, data processing, etc.) offered by private establishments, religious groups, and by SENAC, a nationwide vocational training agency geared to the tertiary sector. Employers, followed by the employees themselves, were those most likely to assume responsibility for the financing of these nonformal educational experiences. The school's contribution was general education. Its distance from the world of work was severely criticized by employees and employers. Secondary level vocational programs appeared to be ineffective and divorced from practice. In this context, the sector of accounting deserves special mention. Although an area that employs a relatively large number of people, offers jobs of responsibility and is professionally regulated, most of those involved learned accounting through practice. Many obtained secondary level diplomas after beginning to work, for the purpose of obtaining certification. At least one firm in the study had problems with professional inspectors and had to pay fines because employees who did accounting "de facto" were not formally registered. For example, one accounting assistant, then 23 years old, stated that he learned his occupation with a colleague and supervisor, because he had taken a poor accounting course in a private school in which students "pay to pass". These results are in agreement with those from other studies which indicate that in-service training is an excellent way for workers to acquire occupational skills (Gomes 1986a). This is especially true in the tertiary sector, where tasks are relatively simple, a factor explaining why this area often serves as a port of entry for young people and migrants. This simplicity differentiates the tertiary sector from the secondary, in that the latter tends to value both job experience and formal vocational preparation (Pastore and Assis 1979; Leite and Caillods 1985). Even in economies that are more mechanized than the Brazilian, technical skills for the majority of occupations are learned on the job, in a relatively easy and rapid fashion. Most workers without college experience acquired their skills informally in this way (Berg 1970). Thus, as will be shown in the following section, the opinions of workers and employers tend to converge in the sense that both groups consider schooling more as an indicator of trainability than as purveyor of immediately applicable productive capabilities. However, criticism suggests that 405 these groups expect school to play a more active role in the preparation for work. Furthermore, there is no evidence in the study that schooling is utilized as a filter or credential, that it signals socio-cuitural characteristics or abilities generally associated with a given school level or with the educational institutions frequented by the job candidates. Evaluating the School The responses of the employees indicate a tendency to value general education, in its informative as well as formative aspects. Asked about the contribution of the school, most of the sample members negated its direct effect on work performance. Yet, they widely recognized relevant indirect effects of general education. This behavior is understandable considering that, as a rule, the respondents learned their work in-service and tended to be critical of school vocationalization. The school influence mentioned by interviewees with by far the greatest frequency pertained to the acquisition of reading, writing and calculating abilities. This was particularly true for respondents in low-level occupations. The positive statements focused on general education as a whole, particularly attitudes, behaviors and abilities linked to social relationships and preparation in general. An example is the declaration of a manager who began his career as a salesman: "The school helps in making the student literate and aware of today's world reality, but it is of no direct help for work." The statement of a manicurist, then studying at the secondary level, indicates recognition of the school's influence for the performance of her job and for circulation in social contexts: "Many times I do nails at embassies and at the Lake (high class residential area). There I need to converse, read, write, and change money." Some respondents emphasize the ability to calculate (particularly sales people) and to communicate orally and in writing. One woman in the area of automobile sales said: "The school taught me to speak. Without knowing Portuguese there is no way that I can work." Taking into account the clientele with whom this informant works, "to speak" means not only fluency but also the use of correct grammar, or, in other words, the utilization of a "social dialect" different from that of her social origins. As with the example of the manicurist, mentioned above, the school appears as an institution that familiarizes or integrates its participants with the dominant culture. Such a role is certainly selective and induces student failure. But, in this research, what stands out are those who overcome the barriers and become a part of the urban salaried labor market. 406 Other subjects focused on such schooling effects as ease of social interaction and the fostering of positive moral attitudes in regard to work: The school helped me relate better. When I arrived from the interior I was very shy (office assistant). The school teaches you to deal with people (warehouse assistant). There (in school) we learn, principally to mix with the public. We learn to converse with people (hotel messenger). It is interesting to note that despite its deficiencies and, in many instances, its strong content emphasis, the school, in the opinion of those interviewed, provides opportunities for the development of social attitudes and skills, especially among those of low SES. Such effects should be credited in part to the fact that the school constitutes a social group which is broader than the family, with distinct norms of social relationship and offering, therefore, a particular means of socialization. It is clear, then, that the school serves to inculcate values. Indeed, some of the statements in this respect suggest a predominantly conservative bias. The col~gio (high school) teaches discipline and respect and this helps (office assistant). Saturday a co!league of mine said a swear word and her boss asked if she had gone to school and if she had learned this sort of thing there. I don't think so, the school helped me to behave, to be polite (supermarket boxer). Among the criticisms of the school that most stand out are the deficiencies in vocational education, as already mentioned. This point is primarily made by those in occupations requiring the secondary level. Also emphasized is the gap between the school in general and work, as well as between theory and practice: The school helped me in everything. The theory was good, one learns the practice on the job (supermarket boxboy). The school did not show how things were going to be in the outside world. This is only learned in daily life (bill collector). The school teaches one thing and when we go into the world it is something else (supermarket attendant). The school, therefore, is seen as an artificial institution divorced from work and life, a place where the student can obtain a view of the world 407 which is partially false, a place where theory is not adequately associated with practice. This discontinuity, against which many schools of educational thought have fought, continues to represent a major challenge. Examining the data from the angle of occupational level, it is evident that positive evaluations of schooling decrease as we move from upper to lower level occupations. For the latter group, tasks were relatively simple and learned on the job, so that schooling was not important, even in terms of requirements for initial entry. An illustrative example of the tendency to value schooling more further up the occupational hierarchy is the declaration of a manager of a middle-size company concerning his career. In beginning at age thirteen as a servant, he affirmed that "the school had no influence whatsoever". However, when later serving as an office assistant his education to that point, in his opinion, was absolutely necessary. His promotion to inspector and operations manager, though, was mainly due to accumulated experience: "You need knowledge from school, but this is not the most important thing for job performance". In relation to non-manual occupations, a concern with training costs seems to make prior experience a criterion more relevant than schooling. However, a portion of the firms in the sample preferred to establish minimum schooling requirements and to train those admitted in-service, leading in turn to successive promotions, because, in filling openings, priority is given to the firm's employees. In this case, the company initially paid lower salaries than the market level and worked to intensify employee loyalty. Available information makes it possible to assume that the firms paying the lowest initial salaries give priority to schooling as an entry requirement and prefer to transfer to their employees at least the major part of the relatively high in-service training costs. Firms paying higher salaries in beginner positions, on the other hand, tend to place more value on prior experience than on schooling and to minimize company training. As for the workers in manual occupations, the companies tend not to set rigid educational requirements because they assume that the required skills are not learned in school. Several of these firms gave priority to candidates with no previous experience in the area. According to fhe manager of one clothing store, "this approach is preferable in order to avoid vices". Or, in the words of the manager of a supermarket, "You mold the unit according to the standards of the enterprise. When he already has some experience, the unit arrives full of vices. This creates difficulties between boss and worker because of the turnover among firms in the sector." On the other hand, the manager of a large clothing store focused on the role of schooling as an indicator of trainability, giving also indirect atten- 408 tion to the effect of social origins: "The person who has studied has an easier time learning the job that he is going to perform . . . Education at home is important but it has to be polished by the school." In general, a utilitarian view of the school prevails, more so among employers than among employees. This view corresponds to the perception that work is merchandise for sale. The most common view of the contribution of school to work is related to the skills, knowledge and attitudes that the school offers or could offer to the performance of concrete tasks. The majority of informants see the theory-practice relationship merely as an improvement of the process of worker preparation in the sense of "selling" better quality and more expensive merchandise. Confronting these affirmations with the literature confirms the relevance of trainability. As for developed countries, similar employer criticism has been registered concerning the lack of linkage between curriculum and the world of work, the inadequacy of school training in basic skills and a consequent lack of preparation of young people for employment (Noah and Eckstein 1988). Another analysis has highlighted the expectation of a non-cognitive schooling contribution, as well as the importance of communication skills (Oxenham 1988). In general, employers do not seem to desire to hire workers who are fully trained. In developing countries the profile appears not unlike that described here. Similar structural factors are evident. Schooling is considered an important criterion in hiring for high and middle level occupations, especially by m o d e m enterprises. Work experience is viewed as the most relevant admission criterion for nonskilled jobs (Hallak and Caillods 198 I; Hallak et al. 1981; Atangana-Mebara, Martin and Ngoc 1984). Thus, the literature confirms a tendency to consider schooling a relevant criterion in job selection only for skilled occupations. Conclusion From the comparative standpoint, youth is an underprivileged group in the labor market, regardless of sex, SES and country of residence. It seems that, even in developed societies, this group is submitted to a sort of rite of passage, since it obtains many of the relatively worst positions of the occupational structure. Unemployment, underemployment, low salaries, no legal labor contracts, dull jobs and bad working conditions are some facets of this ordeal. Sex, SES and country of residence may make the transition easier. However, despite these variations, societies are stratified by age groups. In fact, social stratification is a complex result of the interaction amongst multiple factors. 409 Early this century industrialization led to the definition of a new age in Western Europe and the United States: adolescence. Children and teenagers became unwelcome at work. They were to study and to prepare for the adult role. In the last decades one can distinguish in advanced capitalist societies a new introductory state to full adulthood, that of the young adult. Vulnerable to unemployment, he/she represents a challenge to society. In contrast, in a developing society such as that of Brazil, one can find at the same time young adulthood, adolescence and, in some rural areas, the straight passage from childhood to adulthood. Moreover, such a coexistence may occur in a single person. Children and teenagers at the same time may have working conditions analogous to those of England in the early nineteenth century, whereas they may be submitted to the contemporary patterns of adolescence in a mass society. Therefore, their complex rite of passage has a great amount of storm and stress. Despite these particular features, though, another common characteristic of youth in their struggle to participate in the labor force seems to be the fact that entry into work reinforces social differences in family background and schooling. Such a finding is clear for Brazil and some other countries. The key role played by entry into labor is a result of its importance for the social stratification process. In fact, current theoretical perspectives of labor market participation and social stratification help to clarify youth labor problems. In the light of the observations of this research, such theoretical perspectives lead to interesting conclusions on relations between education and work. The findings give modest support to the technical-function perspective. Schooling and education in general are viewed by respondents as indicators of trainability. As has been seen, various firms prefer to establish minimum educational requirements for training and promoting employees. Others require professional experience, using schooling as a secondary criterion and saving on in-service training costs. In this sense, whereas the classical approach in its most extreme version tends to be refuted, the more moderate view that relates schooling to trainability receives support from the data. In addition, the tendency to give greater value to schooling .the more complex the occupation reiterates that schooling may be seen as a process for acquiring job competencies. In terms of manpower preparation as well as of job selection and acquisition, the evidence does not suggest a process of rational decisionmaking. Initial selection of career is based on improvisation and disinformation, and choices are irrational and often harmful to personal interests. In the context of the conflict paradigm, the responses run contrary to both reproductionism and the radical critique of this view. While the 410 school is seen ,as having a conservative tendency, it is subjected to strong criticism by employers for not meeting expectations, either in general education or in vocational instruction. Thus, it is not possible to establish a direct school-society relationship in which the interests of firms or of dominant groups are served. The school-society linkage is indirect and sinuous, so that the schooling institution apparently assumes a posture which is relatively autonomous. It is not possible to deny totally the existence of ties between the school and certain enterprise demands. The role of the school institution is that of mediator, responsible above all for administering general "theoretical" education that articulates with practical learning acquired within the company. But, from the viewpoint of many employees and especially employers, this linkage in fact is unsati,sfactory. The results, therefore, tend to support the moderate version of classical theory with regard to the nature of school/work relationships. It should be remembered, however, that the study considered only private, profitseeking firms which share at least some degree of rationale. It is not known whether the findings would be replicated if the focus were, instead, on the largest employer in the capital city: the Federal Government. Some Implications for Educational Poficy The educational reform of 1971 sought to overcome the dualistic nature of academic and vocational instruction in Brazil, by making vocationalization obligatory at the secondary level. Unlike Argentina, which attempted similarly to introduce compulsory secondary technical instruction in the same decade (Gallart 1988), Brazil encountered strong student resistance to its project and had to return to the dual structure eleven years later. One of the major problems was that, because of the selectivity of the school system, most of the students who were successful in reaching the secondary level aspired to become more than "just" a middle level technician. The responses obtained in this research show that a large part of the young people who do not reach the secondary level desire to obtain vocational skills but have limited opportunities in this respect. Clearly, the process of overcoming the dual character of schooling, in Brazil as well as in other countries, is not easy, but the democratization of educational opportunities would certainly be facilitated through the following measures: -- an emphasis on general education democratization of access to vocational instruction - - 411 better articulation between the school and vocationalization -- consideration of work as more than merchandise for sale - - The importance attributed by employers and employees to general education indicates that this form of instruction possesses relevant germinative effects and prepares students to adapt flexibly to an unknown future. Thus, general instruction should be strengthened but the school must also continue to give attention to vocational education. The importance of trainability does not mean that in-service training is universally adequate. Many occupations require training outside the firm, and, in certain instances, respondents' expectations of the value of general education were the result more of a realistic adjustment to the precarious nature of the school system than of a perception of real needs. According to estimates made by Castro and Fletcher (1985), the two urban systems of vocational training (SENAI and SENAC) and the federal technical schools then reached only 14 per cent of the potential clientele. Many young people with low incomes are obliged to pay for private courses because of a lack of alternatives (see also Paro 1981). Considering that there are comparative advantages to a diversity of forms of work preparation, depending on region, economic sector and occupational group, it is necessary to expand these opportunities both in school (when actually feasible) and outside it. It is not defensible to remove from the school those vocational alternatives that are shown to be effective. The spectrum of options should be broad and offered at diverse school levels in order to facilitate access. In addition, articulation between the school and the process of manpower training is urgent, without this meaning bureaucratic centralization or attempts to predict worker supply and demand. Public policies referring to education and to work should be intimately related, reflecting a two-way movement between schools and agencies for human resource development. Major priority should be given to vocational information, in that the contribution of schooling in this respect, despite its legal obligation, has been virtually nonexistent, as indicated by our data. Finally, work preparation must be conceived as broader than just the acquisition of knowledge and skills for executing tasks. Work constitutes a process that involves man's participation in society and it includes transformational actions on nature and history. The concept must be understood within a social context in which the notion of citizenship receives emphasis. Moreover, a fundamental issue relating to the democratization of instruction concerns the fact that the school is biased against the less privileged social groups. Although these groups need to master the school curriculum, they usually find this curriculum to be based on a culture that 412 is foreign to them. It is necessary, therefore, to take into a c c o u n t the peculiarities of these g r o u p s and orientate schooling so that it serves their interests. O t h e r w i s e school failure will c o n t i n u e to have p e r v e r s e effects on students. Note 1. Research project sponsored by the Ministry of Education and the Brazilian Comparative Education Society. The views expressed are those of the author and should not be attributed to the sponsors or the institution with which he is affiliated. References Antuniassi, Maria Helena R. 1983. 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