Since the mid-80s, institutional evolutions have sought to redefine the strong division of labour between the educational system and the production system, notably by promoting the idea of partnerships between schools and businesses. Development of alternate formations is one of the privileged ways to do so. However, the imperatives of action that govern the motives of the actors in educational matters and those of productive actors are not compatible per se, and can eventually generate social tension. By studying the case of a particularly close collaboration between a technical school and an iron and steel company in Wallony, the author shows how this tension expresses itself on the school's side and eventually gets resolved through organizational and symbolic adjustments as well as through the establishment of a relationship based on trust. He emphasizes that the game is a complex one, the process of coming together delicate, which allows us to better understand why this type of tight-knit cooperation is rare in the educational landscape.