Goal of many employment support procedures, autonomy needs to be questioned empirically. Based on a research inside the National Association for Adult Vocational Training (AFPA), the article describes three forms of autonomy that reveal paths to differentiated dynamics. If it appears as a resource to be maintained or a stake in conquest to progress, it can also crystallize tensions when social relations stigmatize its lack and lead the individual to identify himself through his distance from social norms. With the help of typical cases, autonomy reveals forms of convergence but also disagreements with the actors of the formation.