What arrangements do vocational students implement to demonstrate their ambition to progress? How do young people at risk of dropping out of school reconfigure their skillset? Through bi-lateral action research, encompassing interviews with disaffected students and the outcomes of pedagogical projects, a number of arrangements come to the fore which lead to students demonstrating an ambition to learn and progress. But such an arrangement appears within an electric arc which envelops the educational establishment which exists to standardise and uniformise it. Against this backdrop, this research proves that it is indeed possible to establish an harmonious regime, where each has a part to play and can access an alternative universe, by daring to challenge the status quo, all the while ensuring its continued existence. In this way, students can demonstrate their individuality whilst acting as agents of change. They forge keen and tight links to the outcomes of their learning, which are in turn mastered with increasing effectiveness. They become useful, and the body of students becomes the first wave of support towards more desirable environments. This fimly roots the pathway to adulthood, where internal and external factors can combine to generate the flow which instils ambition. Within this process, the educator has a role to play, being part of the arrangement and the person responsible for triggering action. The educator facilitates the whole process; bringing together the skills developed within the establishment for degree-level learners, matching these to ambitions, and opening them up to the world of work and society. The educator, through his pedagogical input, can then enable learners to enter into a cycle which offers exit routes into the world of work, and in some cases ways to escape. In this context, he enables learners to progress and develop without traditional constraint