Emmanuel Macron repeated an objective several times during his presentation of the reform of the vocational high school: 100% integration. The Head of State wants to build on the success of learning. But can he apply the same recipes?
Thursday, May 4, Emmanuel Macron presented his reform of the vocational high school, from one of the establishments of Charente-Maritime. The Head of State starts from an observation: young baccalaureate graduates have great difficulty finding work, unlike apprentices and work-study students. Thomas Giraudeau explains this eco word : “Insertion”.
franceinfo: Emmanuel Macron repeated the term “insertion” several times when presenting his reform of the vocational high school. For what ?
Thomas Giraudeau: Because today, these establishments, which educate a third of high school students, have great difficulty integrating their students into the labor market. According to a note from the statistical services of the Ministries of Education and Labour, six months after the end of their studies, Bac Pro in their pocket, barely 40% of them have found a job.
And for students in CAP (pastry, early childhood, hairdressing, personal assistance, for example), also educated in high schools, it’s worse. Only one in four has a job 6 months after graduating.
This failure to integrate professional high school students contrasts with the ease of apprentices in finding work?
Yes, two apprentices out of three have a job six months after the end of their studies, again according to the Ministries of Education and Labour. And again, this figure only concerns apprentices from CAP level to BTS.
It excludes bachelor’s and master’s students who follow their apprenticeship training, for example in business or engineering schools. They are not called apprentices but alternating. And they find work very easily after graduation.
It is also these students in higher education, who make the famous success of learning and its integration capabilities, praised by the executive. Their number has exploded, especially since the health crisis, where the state has massively subsidized apprenticeship contracts.
Today, is it possible to have these advantages of learning while being a professional high school student?
It exists, but in fact, only one in 10 pro high school students is also an apprentice. It is difficult for them to find a company that hires them as an apprentice. At the start of vocational high school, young people are on average 15, sometimes 14. Business leaders often consider that they are not mature enough to work, unlike older students.
And then, their educational level plays against them. 40% of them have a fragile mastery of French when entering second, 70% in maths. Vocational high schools also welcome more allophone students, whose mother tongue is not French.
This is one of the arguments of the teachers’ unions. To integrate and find work, students must have professional experience. But also a minimum school background. Master the fundamentals. They need high school classes for that.
The Head of State seems to have heard this argument. At the end of August 2022, he announced a 50% increase in the duration of internships for all vocational high school students. Finally, it will be four more weeks, at the end of the Terminale year, and only for those who want to enter the job market directly after their Bac Pro. The others, who wish to continue their studies in BTS, will have four weeks of intensive courses to prepare for their entry into higher education.