Completion of Secondary education and professional training in Buenos Aires city: the Baccalaureate with Professional training

Abstract

The purpose of this communication is to present some of the results of an exploratory study, framed in the Unidad de Evaluación Integral de la Calidad y Equidad Educativa (UEICEE), which objective was to examine an educational inclusion device, the “Bachillerato con orientación Profesional” (BOP). This device aims at adolescents that, due to different circumstances associated with social and educational vulnerability have transited discontinuous trajectories in the education system. It is being implemented since 2015 at six vocational training centers of Buenos Aires city, articulating the teaching of the basic subjects of the secondary education with a curricular path of initial professional training corresponding to a specific activity sector. The study analyzes the device in its curricular structure and the institutional organization and explores the particularities of its implementation in each Center, based on a qualitative and quantitative methodological strategy. The combination of methods, techniques and sources makes possible to notice the “craft” teaching work and the deep commitment of the institutional actors, together with a gap between the statement and practice. This gap constitutes a gray area that demonstrates the limitations to implement a flexible academic regime and overcome the traditional disciplinary fragmentation of the secondary school, and in particular the technical-professional school.