Emmanuel Macron wants to make the professional path a “path of excellence”. With this standard objective, the French president presented his reform of the vocational high school on Thursday. At the heart of the promise of an investment of “nearly one 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 assures. 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 education sciences at the University of Paris-8.
What will it change for high school students?
Until now, the compulsory weeks of training in the workplace were not always paid. Indeed, the regulations provide for a bonus when “the duration of the internship within the same host organization is greater than two consecutive months”. However, high school students in vocational streams often do much shorter internships. It is therefore “extremely rare” that this “condition of duration” is met by vocational high school students, ensures Eduscol, the information and support site 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, ”said 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, in parallel, to increase the duration of the internships. Thus, the internships will double in the professional terminals. “These weeks of additional internships will deprive the students of a lot of general education”, underlines the professor of education sciences at the University of Paris-8. In the final year, students in vocational streams will have up to twelve weeks of internship, or three months of general education less. The teachers’ unions are also worried about this increase which, according to them, would amount to “disorganizing the school professional path”. By insisting on the professional integration of these young people, who are around 621,000 in France, Emmanuel Macron therefore seems to go against the doctrine of the pursuit of studies so far displayed by successive governments.
Why is this project worrying?
The Head of State praised the apprenticeship, which is based on alternating between theoretical education and contract with an employer. But this desire to professionalize students in these courses worries many teachers. “We have the impression that we are taking vocational education out of the education system to put it under the control of companies,” says Fabienne Maillard. The Sud-Education union estimates in a press release this Thursday that the president “is carrying out 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 19th century,” agrees Fabienne Maillard.
“In education today, we train citizens, not just workers. These announcements transform the school into a temp agency. Many companies accept interns, 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 this cannot be generalized”, considers the sociologist who adds that they are often confined to “tasks that no one wants to do”. At fifteen, the trainees do more “observation courses” but in BTS or terminale, if they are well trained, they allow companies to produce at very low cost. A situation which “raises the question of the work of minors”, judges the university professor.
Isn’t this a primarily symbolic measure?
The remuneration for high school internships envisaged by the executive seems above all symbolic. Students in the second year of vocational high school and in 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 to 100 euros per week in terminale. With a maximum of 400 euros per month, students in vocational streams are very far from the minimum wage. However, it is not “trivial” to choose to finance these “gratifications 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” in order to guarantee better support for students. As well as the arrival in these establishments 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 press release Thursday, Sud-Education thus believes that the government wants to “put the school at the service of business”.