“It’s a transformation that raises a lot of questions,” said the president of the FCPE

“We have a lot of questions about this transformation”warns the president of the FCPE (Federation of parents’ councils) Grégoire Ensel, Thursday, May 4 on franceinfo, after the presentation by Emmanuel Macron of the reform of the vocational high school during a visit to high school in Charente-Maritime. “It’s a national cause”, assured the President of the Republic, who wants compensation for high school students’ internships between 50 and 100 euros per week as well as the extension of their duration. The measure makes the president of the FCPE fear a weakening of fundamental lessons in class: “We must not sacrifice these essential apprenticeships for the benefit of internship periods in companies”he tempers.

>> Vocational high school reform: what to remember from Emmanuel Macron’s announcements

franceinfo: “The current system is flawed”, said Emmanuel Macron. Do you share the Head of State’s observation?

Gregory Ensel: We have a lot of questions about this transformation. It is not a reform that is announced, but a real transformation of the vocational high school which raises many questions, for example on the duration of the internships or the place in the company. We have a fear, it is that by increasing internships for students who would like not to continue in higher education, this will lead to their taking away fundamental lessons which allow them to understand the world, to know how to write, count and know the country’s history, to have key elements that allow one to be a full citizen. The professional high school has always oscillated between this relationship with the company and this relationship with fundamental knowledge. If we want today’s high school students to be able to have the weapons to be good professionals tomorrow, we must not sacrifice these essential learnings for the benefit of internship periods in companies which are not always very successful.

Is increasing the duration of internships to get to know the business world better for these young people?

It’s a matter of finding a balance. We have to offer internships that are worth it, that are well supervised. There is also the question of mobility, of the means that one has to go on an internship a little further from home, to find accommodation, but also to find a company that makes sense in relation to one’s professional project and that the he company plays the game. We’re talking about mentoring, support, it’s essential.

“And I also believe that it is important to remember that we are dealing with minor students. As a result, the field of possible things in the workshop is often very limited. We can clearly see that there are internships which are blocking because we more often have observation internships than really practicing the profession.”

Grégoire Ensel, President of the Federation of Parents’ Councils

at franceinfo

Another novelty among these announcements, that of this gratification of internships by the State, between 50 and 100 euros per week. Will this allow these students to be valued?

So we can actually hear this argument to which families and students will be sensitive. Nevertheless, we have to be careful that this gratuity does not sometimes give the opportunity to come and meet labor needs in certain employment areas, by having trainees who arrive perhaps in a more wide with a higher flow than today. It is necessary that we supervise these internships, this support, the purpose of the internship, the evaluation and the meaning of this internship in relation to the young person while offering him the possibilities of being on the move and of going for training outside of its living area.

Does the government really give itself the means to improve what happens in vocational high schools, to fight for more integration and against dropping out?

We see that there is indeed a will. Nevertheless, what is the social project for the school? It is absolutely necessary that we ask ourselves this question collectively for the professional high school, for general education, from kindergarten to high school. Today, we see a lot of reforms from middle school to high school in all sectors, but we don’t manage to have this global sharing of a meaning and a social project for the school. This is what we have been asking the FCPE for several months. We absolutely want society to define its social project for the school and give it the means to do so, rather than operating like that, by small touches, by reform or by transformation.