The labour market of today requires higher formal qualifications and broader knowledge, resulting in a greater risk of unemployment, especially among young people. For young people, unemployment can mean a threat to their personal values, such as the gaining of adult status. Schools are criticised for being detached from reality and for not being able to develop the knowledge and qualifications that working life demands. The purpose of this case study is to examine how schools with vocational training programmes organise their work in order, on the one hand, to impart the knowledge that modern working life demands and, on the other hand, to introduce young adolescents to adult life and the working environment.