Education is a critical instrument for governments and communities managing economic and social development in global times. Reboundarying educational work reflects this dynamic where the national and local are networked in complex ways. In this frame, the focus in this article is on a policy debate on educational labour force and gendered work orders. The article examines how the politics of professional jurisdiction refabricates institutional, professional and unionist trajectories, and how these processes are then encountered in the everyday experiences of vocational education teachers.