The President of the Republic detailed Thursday the main measures of his reform, around three objectives: the fight against school dropout, professional integration and a revaluation of the work of teachers.
Its objective: to create professional courses “a path of excellence” And “a national cause”. Emmanuel Macron detailed the reform of the vocational high school, Thursday, May 4, during a trip to the Bernard-Palissy technological and professional high school in Saintes (Charente-Maritime). “The goal is for everyone to find a good job, a job with a good salary, and one that makes sense.”declared the head of state on Facebook on Tuesday evening, on the eve of these announcements. “It’s nearly a billion a year that we are going to invest in vocational high schools.”
“The vocational high school today has too many difficulties”, said Emmanuel Macron, referring to “a broken system” And “a collective failure”. As the President of the Republic reminded us, a third of high school students study professionally in France each year. About 30% of these young people drop out during their course and less than 40% of graduates manage to find a job after six months.
In Saintes, the Head of State detailed a series of measures to reform the vocational streams and improve their appeal, around three axes: the fight against dropping out of school, better professional integration and the upgrading of “commitment” teachers from these high schools. Here are the main announcements of the Head of State about this reform.
Means for “discovering trades”
According to Emmanuel Macron, this reform aspires to “making vocational high school a path of choice” to better fight against school dropout. Thus, from the start of the next school year, all middle school students, from the 5th class, will have “a time dedicated to discovering professions”, announced the Head of State. Teachers from vocational high schools will intervene in college to present these professions. Emmanuel Macron also advocates “a work of transparency” so that families are better acquainted with the openings of each professional sector. “We will display the rates of integration and continuation of studies by sector and by establishment”, starting next spring, he said.
A teaching “more adapted to the needs of the pupils”
With this reform, Emmanuel Macron also intends to develop the means “to help struggling students in career paths. This will involve more work carried out in smaller groups (and support for this objective from the start of the school year), “more personalized support and teaching more suited to the needs of the students”. Another proposal: a system allowing, from the start of the school year, collaborations between teachers, local missions and second chance schools to “avoid school dropout”.
The training map revisited
With a goal of “100% professional integration”, “we must adapt the training map much more according to needs”underlined the President of the Republic. “Training with a poor rate of access to employment or higher education is training that should not be kept”, he insisted. The Head of State thus proposes to change the maps of professional training “at the level of each territory”, to close some and open others, depending on the economic reality of the region. For occupations in tension, for example, “it is smart to reopen training” or to develop others for emerging sectors such as digital or energy transition. Emmanuel Macron aims to develop these professional training cards by the end of the year.
Intern high school students soon to be paid
In order to increase the attractiveness of these technical courses, Emmanuel Macron notably announced a remuneration for high school interns from the start of the next school year. This gratuity, paid for by the State, will be around 50 euros per week of training in the second and first year of CAP, then 75 euros in the first and second year of CAP. In terminale, this remuneration will amount to 100 euros per week.
More “flexibility” in the final year
In the final year, Emmanuel Macron calls for more “flexibility” according to the projects of the high school students. The duration of the internships will be increased by 50% for students wishing to directly seek work after their course. For those heading for a BTS, the government offers four weeks of additional courses.
Strengthened links between high schools and companies
The President also intends to set up a “company office in each vocational high school”For “supporting young people in finding internships” or “developing partnerships”. This desk may be supervised by a teacher or by a “labour market player”. At the same time, Emmanuel Macron wishes to develop the recruitment of associate professors, professionals alongside teachers in vocational high schools. Finally, “we will ramp up from the start of the school year so that 100% of student volunteers have access to a mentor [venu du monde du travail] by 2025″added the head of state.
Upgrades for volunteer teachers
In parallel with the revaluations “unconditional” promised for all teachers from the start of the school year, of the order of 100 to 230 euros net per month, teachers in vocational high schools engaged in new missions linked to the reform will in turn benefit from revaluations. “Each committed and voluntary teacher will be able to claim an increase (…) up to 7,500 euros gross annually”, said Emmanuel Macron. The President also spoke of the need for school leaders to be “fully recognised” for their work, with more resources.