Department of the Pyrénées-Orientales, which holds the sad record for the highest unemployment rate in France in the second quarter of 2021. In Perpignan, more than 30% of 14-25 year olds are unemployed, but about twenty kilometers away, in the valley from Agly, around ten young people who are far from employment are being trained in the vine and wine trades. This diploma course, as part of a program called Skola, allows local winegrowers to find labor and young people to find work. Started in early November, it is provided by the local development association of the Agly valley country and the Apprentis d’Auteuil.
Among the young people participating in the program, there is Jordan, born in Perpignan. At 24, he already knows the wine and wine industry well. “I already worked on pruning when I was 12 with my father who is a winegrower. I learned all that with him but now I prefer to have a diploma, so the bosses can take us. And then I see that my father is proud of me. “
What Jordan likes about these jobs is “working outside”. Before embarking on this training, he had seven years of “gallley” and inactivity in Perpignan. “In Perpignan, there is no work and nobody wants to take you when you don’t have a diploma, whereas here it’s like a second chance. Before, I didn’t do anything, I stayed at home all day. I was a young galley galley. ”
Jordan says he feels much better in the vineyards of Latour-de-France, in the Agly valley, than in Perpignan. “I feel good. I am happy to get up at 6 am. In the evening I come home and I am quite tired. Before I was pissed off all day because I was fucked up and because I was at home all day … You have to work.“
Thanks to this diploma training, Jordan can finally build a future. “I can project myself now, find myself a good garden, my permit, my house … When we have nothing, we have nothing. We can just watch“.
“I’m not interested in politics. I just watch the weather in the morning because I work outside.”
Jordan, 24to franceinfo
Jordan feels very distant from politics. In fact, he never believed in political speeches. “I’ve never voted and I don’t think I’ll ever vote. I’m not interested in voting for people who say they’re going to do things when they never do anything at the end. For me. , they’re just talking. Right now, I’m looking for my own happiness. ”