France: do we need to worry about the French VET system?

Education: France still struggling 

The Commission notes the lack of skilled labour in France, particularly for jobs requiring the technical skills needed for the green and digital transitions. According to the European body, ‘the current investment in the upgrading and retraining of workers is slow to bear fruit’. It also considers that ‘the efficiency of this investment is undermined by the low level of basic skills of more than a fifth of 15-year-old pupils’.  

Further, in its European Semester 2022 Spring Package, the Commission denounces ‘high socioeconomic and regional inequalities in the French education system’. It notices that these ‘inequalities may be exacerbated by the low rate of participation of French teachers in continuing training and by high pupil-teacher ratios’. 

Training or employment: some students make a choice 

Attracted by the immediate remuneration offered by companies looking for workers, some learners in vocational baccalaureate (Bac Pro) courses are quitting before they have obtained their diploma.  

The headmasters of vocational high schools have observed a worrying phenomenon since 2020. After the lockdown, some students did not return to class and did not finish the school year to take their Bac Pro exams. Instead, they had found a job. This is happening again this year, particularly in sectors in high demand, such as the hotel and catering industry or personal services. As the vocational baccalaureate exams begin in May with practical tests, some young people are tempted to give up everything to earn money. 

The headmistress of a vocational school specialising in hotel and catering and tourism in Arcachon, has received several letters from her Bac Pro students. In one of them, a student tells her that his decision has been made, that he wants to earn a living and that he will not take the exams. According to the headmistress: ‘We are in a sector where the professions are under pressure and lacking in manpower’. She added, ‘Following internships, employers offer them golden opportunities. For a young person, EUR 1 000 or EUR 1 500 seems huge. They decide to stop, sometimes just a few weeks before exams, which is regrettable’. She worries about them leaving without a diploma: ‘If they want to go back to school later or change sector, it will be much more complicated.’ 

Possessing a recognised vocational qualification is one of the criteria companies use to recruit. Without their diploma, young people may face difficulties when looking for a (another) job in the future. This is a new phenomenon that both VET schools and companies have to face. School principals try to convince learners who did not return to the classroom but had already completed their continuous assessment (contrôle en cours de formation, CCF) to attend the final exams; some bilateral agreements are being concluded between vocational high schools and professional branches to ensure that this drift is limited, even in a period of labour shortages. Firms force young people, or give them time, to take the exam. 

In the long term, everyone would lose out. The young people mainly, but also companies and, more generally, the French economy, which would lose skills and qualifications.  

Read more

• 2022 European Semester – Spring package communication of the European Commission, country specific recommendations – France   
• Des élèves de Bac pro quittent leur formation pour partir travailler et c'est inquiétant. Article de Sonia Princet publié le 23 mai 2022 [Learners in vocational baccaleaureate programmes quit school for a job, an alarming phenomenon. Article by Sonia Princet published on 23 May 2022]