By embarking on molecular biology studies in Rennes two years ago, If thought he could reconcile ecological convictions and scientific research. But the Brestoise, member of Youth for Climate, is especially frustrated: “In fact, I feel bad about my training because for me it’s not useful, not useful at the current stakes.” She is one of those young people, some of whom have blocked their high school, who believe that society as a whole has not taken the measure of the climate crisis that awaits us.
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Organic farmer’s daughter, If wants to take a sabbatical year in order to think about his new project: “It would be to create an organic farm with collective permaculture and that we can try to create a link with the working-class neighborhoods of the surrounding cities.” An activity which she hopes will allow her to continue to be an activist.
Émilie also dreams of a useful job. This pupil of first in Bordeaux, had her “click”, its awareness of global warming, in college. She became a vegetarian, banned plastic and took part in several climate marches. “But it’s very frustrating, it feels like there’s not much we can do in the end,” does she breathe. Next year, after the baccalaureate, she is thinking of enrolling, in turn, in biology college, “preferably in ecosystems, biodiversity… I would really like to work on animals and how to try to live together.”
“My first idea was to be in associations like WWF and to raise awareness, to look for what. Not to stay in a laboratory and be in the field”.
Emilie, first year student in Bordeauxat franceinfo
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Faced with the climate challenge and to adapt to new environmental standards, more and more general training now offers courses focused on sustainable development or biodiversity. In law, life and earth sciences (SVT) or even in geography. At UniLaSalle Rennes, a private engineering school, we have been training for 30 years in environmental professions, and demand is exploding, says Emilie Gardin, recruitment manager: “The first promotion in 1992 was 30 students and today we have reached 530 students”. Membership jumped 25% last year.
Is it the mark of a growing environmental concern or the awareness among this new generation that the ecological transition is a great professional opportunity? “We are currently interviewing for recruitment and most tell us that they are part of the climate walks, that they do clean walks [action de ramassage collectif des déchets] with their establishments, that they have awareness-raising actions with their families”, observes Emilie Gardin.
“There is certainly this look of saying to oneself ‘I will have no difficulty in having a job’. But we can clearly see in the actions they have here, at school, in their associative involvement, that it is really something that is close to their hearts on a daily basis.”
Emilie Gardin, recruitment manager at UniLaSalle Rennes engineering schoolat franceinfo
Maturin, a second-year student, was very impressed by his eco-volunteering experience in Belize three years ago: “I realized that waste is catastrophic in Latin American and Central American countries.” Without a precise idea of his future profession, the young man from a village near Saint-Malo is destined rather for the business world. and its management “garbage or water”.
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Advice on improving the carbon footprint for the private sector or for communities is indeed one of the main outlets highlighted by UniLaSalle Rennes, which specifies that the first recruitment takes place on average five weeks after the end of the course. The Breton school, like the Institute of Environmental and Ecological Transition Professions (IET) – which has branches in Nantes and Lyon – claim to warn and educate their students against “greenwashing”. These communication campaigns that allow polluting companies to give themselves an eco-responsible image.
But other courses, less selective, are also part of an approach to preserving the environment, explains Patricia Penvern, psychologist for national education in Rennes: “A baccalaureate that is not necessarily very well known, which is called STI2D, industrial and sustainable development, integrates these concerns very well while it deals with electricity, technical drawing, industrial manufacturing.” A professional course which allows, by continuing up to bac+3, to specialize in eco-construction or the energy renovation of buildings, key sectors in the fight against global warming.
According to Ademe, the environment and energy management agency, the ecological transition will require the creation of 340,000 net jobs (taking into account the number of jobs destroyed in energy-related sectors fossils) by 2035. But all these positions do not necessarily arouse vocations tempers Patricia Penvern.“Someone who works in a waste collection center is also a very useful job for the environment that we don’t always think about”, she advances. The psychologist also talks about the maintenance and repair of wind turbines : “Is it an ecological profession for young people? We don’t know”.