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The question of retraining lies at the heart of current employment policy issues. However, wanting to change occupation is no guarantee of completing a retraining programme, even less of finding a job. While low-skilled blue- and white-collar workers are the ones most likely to seek a change, they are also the ones who benefit least from a retraining programme. Workers’ desires to retrain are also driven by different motivations depending on their socio-occupational category: it may be an enforced reaction to the ups and downs of working life, a rejection of downgrading and deteriorating working and employment conditions or a search for meaning.