Vocational training in times of pandemic and post-pandemic: learning, solidarity, absence, and pain

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze the social experiences and academic work in the online modality of university students from Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico during the confinement before the covid-19 pandemic and after this. A qualitative methodology was used, through interviews in six focus groups and four individual, texts and reports of participants. The results show the complexity of students' experiences in pandemic and post-pandemic education. Its analysis delves into the meanings of disease and death, coexistence, support and solidarity; the path of academic work in the online modality, learning and employment, in an environment of labor crisis and post-pandemic precariousness. It is concluded that the pandemic brought changes in social and academic life, the experience of students reveals uncertainty, anguish, and fear before little or no coexistence, precariousness exclusion; and disenchantment with the online educational modality.