Vocational high school: great uncertainty around major reform

Will Emmanuel Macron be able to carry out the reform of vocational higher education, which has often been started, but never succeeded? On September 13, during a trip to the Éric-Tabarl secondary school in Sables-d’Olonne (Vendée), the head of state explained again to an audience of teachers and local entrepreneurs that the axes of transformation in this way were considered too small. “Integration”.

In the presence of the delegate of the Minister of Vocational Education and Training, Karol Granjani and the Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye, The president recalled that he wanted better guidance for high school students by creating “future half-days” from the 5th.^e, is dedicated to discovering professions. He wants to establish an increase in the number of internship weeks for vocational high school students – whose time in business will now be paid – and a greater presence of business actors in these institutions. Finally, the training map should adapt to the needs of local businesses, if necessary, close “non-integrated” courses and redirect teachers to other more promising disciplines.

This reform will be carried out, insisted the head of state, with a new method that is already well known to educational actors, who have presented it several times since the spring: a debate in the field that will bring together all the actors to propose solutions – on September 8, the change of the National Recovery Council was launched, in the educational field and locally level. We must not stand in the way of the gradual entry into force of this reform.Mr. Macron said promisingly “To evaluate, to look at what works and what works less well.”

Sort the stages

The main lines of this project, which was already established before the start of the academic year, the presidential trip to Sables-d’Olonne struggles to solve the questions it raises. An increase in the period of internship, now paid, should be imagined “Better organization of school study time”, details an Elysee recruiter at Tabarli High School who laments the vocational path of sometimes overcrowded classrooms that welcome many disadvantaged students. The president thus proposes the sequence of internships – so that students are not in all companies at the same time – dividing the lessons into academic lessons. an idea “the experiment”– said Mr. Macron.