The fast expansion of universities in Brazil has opened up the superior educational system to students of low income groups, that attend evening courses and pay privately for tuition. Many are older than the average student: more than college students who happen to work, they are workers who go to college. This article disputes the received notion that a college degree enables people to occupy high skilled jobs, and suGGests that it is the conditions of the labor market and occupational positions already obtained by these individuals that enables them to return to the educational system and grant themselves a college degree.
college; labor market; school-work transition; economic development
