“At least I’ll stand up for something I like”

In a few days, the apprentice shepherds will go up to the mountain pastures but for the moment, they are refining their apprenticeship. They are between 19 and 50 years old and a few weeks ago they were still mechanics, ecologists, poultry workers or accountants.

>> Employment: more and more French people are opting for professional retraining

Carine, precisely, was an accountant. She waited until her children were grown up to let go of her profession: “Rather than going to work telling myself that what I’m doing is useless and that I’m obeying more and more stupid rules, at least then I’ll get up to do a job that I like and that makes sense.”

Like her, they are twelve to have decided to start learning this particular trade. Kristali, 44, worked in the sale of luxury leather goods. It’s her first day in contact with the sheep but she already seems at ease. She explains that in her previous job, she was in a “permanent tiredness“by dint of having to convince potential buyers.

On the program of this six-month training: learning about mountain vegetation, adaptation to weather conditions. And of course, animal care. So we learn to sting animals. SNeedle in hand, Olivier, a former automotive salesperson, is ready to earn half the money: “The profession of shepherd is a maximum of 2,000 euros per month.

“I decided to put my life level sliders differently and I’m not unhappy about it.”

Olivier, former salesperson

at franceinfo

Noé, the youngest of the promotion, aged 19, adds meanwhile wanting “to cut off from today’s internet world and be alone at the bottom of my mountain, without having a boss telling me what to do.“

Dreams of freedom that attract four times more applications than there are places. Their trainer, Yannick Croisier, sometimes has to reframe in the face of an idealized vision of the profession: “It’s not a profession of contemplation, he explains. When we milk at three in the morning in August, sometimes it freezes. There can be very steep drops. We are in an environment that can quickly become hostile.“

Also sometimes with a complicated guest: the wolf, which the apprentices learn to manage during their training.