2025

Measures to promote youth employment

Implementation period: Announced on July 16, 2025.

Status: In force.

Responsible authorities: Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research; Ministry of Labor and Employment; Ministry of Sports, Youth and Community Life.

Reasons/objectives: Improve the professional integration of young people, focusing on three main strategic areas:

1. Providing young people with better guidance, training and information on jobs that are hiring;
2. Strengthening the links between young people and businesses throughout their career paths;
3. Preventing dropouts, supporting vulnerable young people and promoting intensive integration programs.

Main measures adopted:

• Enrich the data held by “Inserjeunes” and “Insersup” to provide better information on career opportunities and success stories, along with the future information platform for young people;
• Encourage companies to become more involved in career discovery programs starting in secondary school, with a focus on increasing the number of women in STEM fields;
• Offer all vocational upper secondary students in their final year workshops and individual interviews with “France Travail” and the “Missions Locales” (“Avenir Pro program”);
• Develop 50,000 places over two years for one-year work-study specialization training at the first qualification levels, in conjunction with the professional branches;
• Systematize work experience in the first two months of the youth employment contract (“CEJ”) and develop pathways tailored to the needs of the sectors;
• Develop and roll out a benchmark training program for employment network advisors to train them in the business engagement strategy;
• Mobilize business task forces to engage employers in youth employment (recruitment, internships, mentoring, etc.);
• Make the conditions for short-term or part-time work more flexible for students, in order to promote student work that is compatible with their studies;
• Pilot the compulsory training of 16-18 year olds with a focus on results and clarify the responsibilities of the actors involved;
• Develop and mobilize intensive pathways for young people who are furthest from employment (civic service, production schools, etc.);
• Strengthen the management of mentoring and target it at priority groups to support transitions to employment or education.

Funding and material resources:

Funding: not specified.

Material resources: not specified.

Evaluation and monitoring mechanisms: Not specified.

References: https://travail-emploi.gouv.fr/lancement-de-la-strategie-gouvernementale-en-faveur-de-lemploi-des-jeunes 

2024

A new training cycle for the vocational "baccalauréat"

Running period: Set up at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year as part of the reform of vocational "lycées".

Status : In force

Responsible authorities: Ministry of National Education and Youth

Reasons/objectives: 

• Strengthen the teaching of basic skills,
• Support each vocational high school student's pathway to employment or further study,
• Prepare for the post-vocational school years.

Main measures adopted:

• The widespread use of small groups in French and mathematics in the first and second years of vocational "lycées",
• One hour's support each week in the first and second years, and one and a half hours in the final year of vocational upper-secondary school,
• The reorganisation of the last six weeks of the final year of vocational "lycée" into a preparatory course, with a choice of either entry into the world of work or further study.

Funding and material resources:

Funding: not specified.

Material resources: not specified.

Evaluation and monitoring mechanisms: Not specified.

References: https://www.education.gouv.fr/rentree-2024-ce-qu-il-faut-savoir-415001

A business office in every vocational upper secondary school

Running period: Set up at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year as part of the reform of vocational "lycées".

Status : In force

Responsible authorities: Vocational upper secondary schools

Reasons/objectives: Organise and develop partnerships with professional players for the benefit of all those attending vocational or multi-purpose "lycées": pupils, apprentices, students and continuing vocational trainees. On the other hand, this office is the single point of entry for each company to facilitate the development of joint initiatives with the upper secondary schools.

Main measures adopted:

• Support teachers and trainers in their interactions with the business world;
• Set up joint initiatives between the school, the business world and local players;
• Create this resource for finding and successfully completing high-quality work placements, periods of on-the-job training and work-linked courses;
• Develop a sense of belonging and an alumni network;
• Monitor the success of the career paths and integration of each person trained at the school.

Funding and material resources:

Funding: not specified.

Material resources:

• The 1jeune1soultion.gouv.fr platform is published by the Ministry of Labour (General Delegation for Employment and Vocational Training).

References: Les bureaux des entreprises dans les lycées professionnels | Ministère de l'Education Nationale et de la Jeunesse

2023

Reform of the vocational route

Deadline: Announced on 4 May 2023

Status: Implementation at the start of the 2023-2024 school year and roll out until the start of the 2026-2027 school year.

Responsible authorities: Ministry of National Education and Youth; Ministry of Labour, Employment and Inclusion

Reasons/objectives: The aim of the reform of the vocational route is to provide better integration for graduates and better support for those who wish to continue their studies in higher education.

Main measures adopted:

- Financial incentives for work placements for vocational upper secondary students from the start of the 2023-24 school year: A student enrolled in a vocational upper secondary school (i.e. lycée professionnel) will be able to receive up to €2,100 for a three-year vocational baccalauréat course.

- Consolidating basic knowledge: in the first year of vocational education (i.e. grade 10), maths and French will be taught in small groups from the start of the 2023-24 school year in voluntary vocational lycées. This measure will be extended to all vocational lycées from the start of the 2024-25 school year. In addition, students in their second and third years of vocational upper secondary education (i.e. grades 11 -12) will benefit from more hours of teaching in mathematics and French.

- Encourage ambition by allowing students to choose optional subjects.

- Organise the final year of lycée in line with the student's plans: obtain a diploma and then, either find a job or continue their studies.

- Create three new schemes to prevent the risk of dropping out during and after the lycée: "Tous droits ouverts", "Ambition emploi" and "Parcours de consolidation".

- Better prepare students to enter the world of work through external partnerships: by supporting 50% of students in their final year who wish to enter the world of work after graduation from the start of the 2023-24 school year, and then 100% of final year students by the start of the 2024-25 school year.

- Transforming training to respond to the major transitions in our economy by thoroughly updating a quarter of existing diplomas by the start of the 2025-26 school year. The target for the start of the 2026-27 school year is to close 100% of non-integrating courses.

- Create short, complementary courses after the diploma to make it easier for secondary school students to enter the job market: in voluntary schools, increase the number of places in specialised one-year short cycle programmes (“Bac + 1 courses”) from 4,500 to 5,000 by the start of the 2023-24 school year, and to 20,000 places by the start of the 2026-27 school year.

- Create a dedicated business relations office in each lycée.

- Enable volunteer teachers to carry out new paid tasks to promote success and provide better support for students.

- Help new School Heads of vocational lycée to take up their duties successfully.

- Renewing in-service training for vocational lycée teachers to enable them to regularly adapt their teaching to the rapid changes in the economy and to take on students who are sometimes in great difficulty at school.

Funding: one billion euros invested each year in the vocational school of tomorrow

Evaluation and monitoring mechanisms: Not specified.

References: 12 mesures pour faire du lycée professionnel un choix d’avenir pour les jeunes et les entreprises ; Dossier de presse