“Carole Grandjean will receive you in one of her two offices … Not the one housed by National Education, but the one located at the Ministry of Labour”, takes care to specify to L’Express the entourage of the Minister Delegate in charge vocational education and training. The person concerned, placed under dual supervision, therefore has two addresses. A particularity that is not anecdotal: bringing the world of education and that of business closer together is one of the ambitions of the vocational high school reform project that this former human resources executive and former LREM deputy for Meurthe- et-Moselle pilot since his appointment last July. “If we want to make it a path of excellence and success, chosen by families and students, we have to change the situation,” she insists, under the gold of the Hôtel du Châtelet.
The figures are hardly brilliant: on their own, vocational high schools account for two-thirds of dropout students; only half of those who come from it manage to find a job; 10% of those who wish to pursue studies do so. One of Emmanuel Macron’s great promises, during the presidential campaign, was to open this huge project which concerns more than 620,000 students… i.e. 1 in 3 high school students. “Can you imagine if the general high school posted such a record? This would be an outcry! We cannot continue to steer hundreds of thousands of teenagers towards sidings that offer them no perspective”, we confide at the Elysée. The success of the apprenticeship reform, which has made it possible to better connect young people in training to the needs of the regions, is regularly cited as an example. Since 2018, the number of apprentices has effectively tripled, and 77.5% of them are taken on by VSEs-SMEs.
The essential axis of this project to reform vocational high schools? Review the training offered in the establishments in order to adjust them to the economic challenges of tomorrow. “Young people who are in production sectors preparing for trades in mechanics, industry or digital technology are more successful in their integration into the labor market. However, these represent only 40% of the sectors”, deplores Carole Grandjean. It is understood that it will be necessary to eliminate or revise downwards certain professional courses and to offer others. On the management side, we tend to rejoice. “At a time when many professions are in tension and where we are encountering major recruitment difficulties, we can only join in this approach”, confirms Stéphane Heit, president of the training, education and employment commission at the Confederation of small and medium enterprises. Benoît Serre, deputy vice-president of the National Association of HRDs, sees this as an opportunity to finally focus on collaboration between schools and companies, which “both have to gain”.
But part of the vocational education sector is far from sharing this enthusiasm. As of October 18, a month before the launch of the first consultation on the reform project, almost all the trade unions called for a one-day strike. “I have never seen such a mobilization! It must be said that, from the start, the ministry went from provocation to provocation, announcing inept measures without even taking the time to draw up a photograph of the current state of the school”, gets carried away Pascal Vivier, head of SNETAA-FO, the main union in the sector. The prospect of increasing the duration of internships in companies by 50% – promise of the candidate Macron – is then one of the big points of tension. “It must be understood that the young people we welcome have for the most part significant social, economic and educational difficulties, explains Sigrid Girardin, spokesperson for Snuep-FSU. However, the successive reforms of recent years have already reduced drastically the time devoted to general disciplines, which are nevertheless necessary for the pursuit of studies or their integration into society. There comes a time when this is no longer tenable.”
Several unions – the Snuep-FSU, the CGT and the SNETAA-FO – refused to take part in the four working groups organized by the government between last October and January, which brought together more than 160 actors (teachers, parents of pupils, regions, companies, apprentice training centres, etc.). The discussions were sometimes lively. “I felt a real distrust, even a rejection of some teachers,” says Laurent Munerot, vice-president of U2P, the Union of local businesses. However, the entrepreneur acknowledges having had interesting exchanges with certain National Education staff, in particular heads of establishments: “Their role is very important. Those who manage to organize a real network with the local economic fabric are those who who best manage to place their students in internships and who obtain the best results.”
“It is implied that the school is picking up!”
These exchanges resulted in 200 proposals, revealed by Carole Grandjean on January 27th. But, surprise, the question of the extension of the training courses does not appear there any more. The minister recognizes “a lack of consensus” on the subject. “Even the companies were not particularly favorable to it, confides Stéphane Heit. Today, we are dealing with less mature students, and therefore more difficult to supervise than in the past. Focus on internships, okay , but rather at the end of the course, that is to say at the level of the terminal.” Some opponents of the reform see it as a decline of the executive, while for the minister “the philosophy of the project remains”. “This question of the period of training in the workplace remains important for us. But I have of course heard this call to better prepare it upstream”, she says. Emmanuel Macron’s other promise to grant a bonus to students during these stays in the company is, for its part, maintained, even if its amount, borne by the State, remains to be defined.
The measure will be applied from the start of the 2023 school year, as will the generalization of “half-day trades” in fifth grade, currently being tested in 10% of colleges. The idea: to put an end to an orientation that is too often suffered and to encourage possible vocations. “The question is above all: how do we make young people want to go into neglected trades such as construction or the hotel and catering industry? If companies want to attract new recruits, and keep them, they will have to that they agree to discuss working conditions and remuneration”, reacts Pascal Vivier. The trade unionist also takes a dim view of the other proposal, once put forward, to place companies at the head of the boards of directors of vocational high schools. “A way of implying that the school is picking up and that only the company knows what to do!” he complains.
For Carole Grandjean, the main issue is not there. And the Minister to emphasize once again the necessary adaptation of the training map to the economic needs of the country, taking into account the specificities of the different employment areas. Important and explosive precision for some unions, who see in this a desire to respond quickly to the needs of local businesses and fear a “house arrest” of their students. “It is not calling into question the national character of the diploma to have certain territorial colorings, replies the minister. A roofer who practices in Lorraine will not need to know how to put a slate roof, unlike one who lives in Brittany and for whom this expertise will be very important.” Companies will also be quicker to welcome students whose training corresponds to their core business, right from the internship periods. “It is not a question of making teaching 100% dependent on companies in the area, because if these were to disappear, it would obviously be dramatic. It is all a question of balance”, comments Benoît Serre.
Implicitly, finally, is the question of the future of teachers in the vocational path. “The company is brought to evolve continuously, it is up to them to follow the movement”, launches Laurent Munerot. This dental technician has himself seen his activity transformed by digital technology. “Today, we no longer ask employees to know how to sculpt in a block of wax, but rather to handle the design of devices by computer”, he explains. For her part, Carole Grandjean assures that “no teacher will be left by the wayside”, and that the emphasis will be on support during this period of transformation, “which will be done gradually”. Not sure that the message is enough to calm the fears at National Education. A period of consultation, bringing together around fifty players, should begin soon. The debates promise to be stormy. And a connoisseur of the sector to blow: “The gap is so big … This single reform will not manage to bring together two worlds that have been looking at each other like earthenware dogs for years.”