Youth Pathways: The Schooling and Work Processes of Young People from the Metropolitan Area of Belo Horizonte - Brazil

In recent periods, Brazil, as well as other Latin American countries, has experienced an increase on the access to rights in many fields, including the right to a “decent work”, as well as an increase in public policies for the youth which have already been interrupted by the economic, political and social crisis of the country. In that perspective, this article intents to contribute to the understanding on the schooling and work pathways of young people who had participated in a widely disseminated government program – the Young Apprentice Program. By a quantitative and qualitative perspective, with different collect of data instruments – questionnaires, interviews and research in social networks – the work and education experiences of 112 young people from the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte were mapped in a period of four years. Based on the theoretical background of the sociology of the youth, sociology of work and sociology of individual, the primary results reveal that, in this group of young people, a precarious entry in the job market has persisted even in the period of labor formalization, which evidences the necessary articulation between the analysis of young people labor’s insertion and other inequality determinants, such as gender, race and territory.