• The State will invest "a billion euros per year" additional for vocational high schools, announced Thursday Emmanuel Macron, during a trip to Charente-Maritime.
  • The French president wants to make the reform of these establishments a "national cause" and obtain "100% professional integration".
  • But this desire to professionalize young people worries and risks "dropping vocational education from the education system to put it under the control of companies," warns Fabienne Maillard, sociologist and professor of educational sciences at the University of Paris-8.

Emmanuel Macron wants to make the professional path a "path of excellence". With this objective as a standard, the French president presented this Thursday his reform of the vocational high school. At the heart of the promise of an investment of "nearly a billion per year" is the question of internships. The head of state wants them to be more numerous and all paid. Because "all work deserves a salary," he says. But is the internship a job like any other? What will this measure change for high school students and for the job market? 20 Minutes looks at this change for you, thanks to the insight of Fabienne Maillard, sociologist and professor of educational sciences at the University of Paris-8.

What will it change for high school students?

Until now, mandatory weeks of on-the-job training have not always been paid. Indeed, the regulations provide for a gratuity when "the duration of the internship within the same host organization is greater than two consecutive months". However, high school students in vocational courses often do much shorter internships. It is therefore "extremely rare" that this "condition of duration" is met by vocational high school students, says Eduscol, the site of information and support for education professionals. "It is true that these students need money, many work as delivery men or in restaurants to survive. But these are small gratuities, insufficient for many students from working-class backgrounds, "says sociologist Fabienne Maillard who would prefer the allocation of allowances or scholarships for these students in difficulty.

To achieve "100% integration", the French president wants, at the same time, to increase the duration of internships. Thus, internships will double in the professional terminals. "These weeks of internships in addition will deprive students of many general teachings," says the professor of educational sciences at the University of Paris-8. In the final year, students in vocational streams will have up to twelve weeks of internship, i.e. three months less general education. The teachers' unions are also concerned about this increase, which they say would amount to "disrupting the school career path". By insisting on the professional integration of these young people, who are about 621,000 in France, Emmanuel Macron seems to go against the doctrine of pursuing studies so far displayed by successive governments.

Why is this project worrisome?

The Head of State praised apprenticeship, which is based on alternating between theoretical teaching and contract with an employer. But this desire to professionalize students in these sectors worries many teachers. "We have the impression that we are dropping vocational education out of the education system to put it under the control of companies," says Fabienne Maillard. The Sud-Education union believes in a statement on Thursday that the president "proceeds to the sacking of vocational education" and evokes the "submission of vocational education to the needs of companies and not to the needs of our society". "This project is very reminiscent of the nineteenth century," abounds Fabienne Maillard.

"In today's education, we train citizens, not just workers. These ads transform the school into a temp agency. Many companies accept trainees, even young ones, but few have the means to train them properly. "Companies are not formative in absolute terms. The internship can be very formative and some companies supervise young people very well but it is not generalizable, "says the sociologist who adds that they are often confined to "tasks that no one wants to do". At fifteen, trainees do more "observation internships" but in BTS or terminale, if they are well trained, they allow companies to produce at a very lower cost. A situation that "raises the question of child labor," says the university professor.

Is this not primarily a symbolic measure?

The remuneration of high school internships envisaged by the executive seems above all symbolic. Students in the second year of vocational high school and the first year of CAP will be able to claim a bonus of 50 euros per week. It rises to 75 euros per week in the first and second year of CAP and 100 euros per week in terminale. With a maximum of 400 euros per month, students in vocational courses are very far from the minimum wage. However, it is not "trivial" to choose to finance these "gratuities by the State", insists Fabienne Maillard.

"Is it really up to the state rather than companies to finance internships where students are productive?" asks the expert in educational sciences. Emmanuel Macron announced the establishment of "a business office in each vocational high school" to ensure better support for students. As well as the arrival in these institutions of "associate professors" from the business world. The executive assumes its desire to introduce the professional world into the sphere of secondary education, to the great displeasure of the teachers' unions. In its statement on Thursday, Sud-Education believes that the government wants to "put the school at the service of business".

  • Society
  • Internship
  • High school reform
  • Work
  • Emmanuel Macron