Betwixt and between: Split‑site participation, boundary crossing, and student motivation in junior apprenticeship

This article presents a two-wave longitudinal interview study with ten Danish lower secondary students participating in Denmark’s newly launched junior apprenticeship programme. Students attend school while spending two days a week in a workplace, creating a split-site pathway that reworks participation, recognition and school–work boundaries. Informed by Situated Expectancy-Value theory and sociological transition perspectives, we analyse how expectations of success, intrinsic, utility and attainment value, and perceived cost are produced and recalibrated as students move across contexts. Rather than treating motivation as an individual disposition, the analysis foregrounds how engagement emerges through situated participation in workplace practices and through negotiated positions within school settings. Findings show that anticipated utility (a perceived ‘head start’ for future VET) often morphs into intrinsic enjoyment once placements begin, as students experience interest and pleasure in workplace tasks. Being entrusted with responsibility strengthens attainment value and can spill over into classroom engagement. However, emotional, social and logistical costs sometimes limit or reverse gains. Expectancies of success and value components co‑evolve dynamically under split‑site participation; workplace practice may strengthen perceived competence, while contextual frictions shape trajectories in situ. We argue that junior apprenticeship constitutes a hybrid, boundary‑crossing transition challenging linear models of school-to-work movement.