Enduring or resilient? Young people navigating violence in Uganda’s vocational education

Background Vocational education and training (VET) is promoted as a pathway to skills, employment, and economic independence for young people, yet training environments may also expose them to violence. However, little is known about how young people, especially those with violent childhoods, navigate these spaces. Objective We investigated how young people with experiences of childhood violence navigated violence within VET institutions in Luwero district, Uganda. Participants and settings We included 41 primary participants aged 18–25 years who had experienced childhood violence and had subsequently enrolled in VET. Participants were recruited from Luwero, a semi-urban district in central Uganda, and nearby areas. Methods We used interpretive description within a social constructivist framework and drew on critical social-ecological perspectives as an interpretive lens. We conducted in-depth interviews and focus group discussions and applied an inductive thematic analysis. Semi-structured interviews explored participants’ experiences and understandings of violence, their responses and sources of support, their aspirations, and their views on improving VET environments. Results Participants described VET as both an opportunity and a site of vulnerability. Three interconnected themes captured how they navigated violence: (1) negotiating unsafe learning environments; (2) reimagining identity and sustaining future aspirations; and (3) anchoring supportive relationships. Their responses included remaining in training, avoiding threats, seeking support, reporting incidents, disengaging, or leaving. These responses reflected agency, but their feasibility and consequences were shaped by gendered power relations, institutional practices, perceived alternative, and access to supportive relationships. Conclusion Young people’s navigation of violence in VET involved a constrained negotiation between immediate safety and future opportunity, rather than straightforward evidence of individual resilience. Persistence, withdrawal, and help-seeking could each express agency, but their feasibility and consequences depended on relational and institutional conditions. VET institutions should therefore treat violence prevention, confidential reporting, accountable safeguarding, and trauma-informed support as conditions of equitable participation in VET and transition to work.