What people think and feel about labour depends on their personal experiences but also on the (sub-)cultural context they live in. And it depends on the ways, labour is organized in this culture: From the ways of recruiting new workers, to wages, etc. the social perception of labour may differ considerably between cultures. We grasp such social representations of labour, in the forms of ideas, beliefs and feelings which are recorded and remembered in a collective way and can be understood by analyzing its manifestations. We suppose that social representations of labour are crucial for individual educational choices and job selection. By means of an in-depth qualitative approach, we analyse representations of non-academic work in Mexico shown in artefacts. By reveiling connotations, stereotypes, etc. linked to non-academic labour data, we contribute to theory building regarding potential options or barriers for trans-national transfer of vocational educational systems.