“Today, guidance is marked by a complicated global context,” explains Julien Fernandez. “Basically, we are asking young people to make career choices very early, which will shape their future, even though their understanding of professions, training, and the working world is quite limited. Moreover, what is also striking is that all these choices are not made under the same conditions for everyone.”
At R2E, we believe that guidance is deeply influenced by social, territorial, and cultural inequalities. As a result, some young people have access to networks, role models, and information, while others do not.
“Furthermore, we are asking these young people to make choices in a world that is changing profoundly, particularly with the advent of artificial intelligence. Previously, the dominant model was to study for 5 years to secure a 40-year career. This model is disappearing,” emphasizes Julien Fernandez. The consequence: one in two young people regrets their career choice.
What will be valued in the coming years is rather the ability to make connections, to have critical thinking, to understand a context, and to interact, he explains. “We are obviously talking about manual professions, but we cannot all be plumbers tomorrow. At some point, there will be bottlenecks. And so, this is part of the solution: understanding what the skills of tomorrow are.”
The idea is to think about how to best prepare young people for this world. And R2E's conviction is that one of the keys to this new guidance system is the teachers. “A teacher supports at least 30 young people in a year. So, a teacher well-trained in the issues of guidance means a greater chance that the young people will be better guided themselves.”
R2E will therefore provide training, educational resources, and experiences to teachers, and more broadly to all educational staff dealing with guidance. This support will lead to changes in their approach.
“And this is not just an anecdote, as this means more dedicated hours to guidance. It also gives teachers greater legitimacy to engage with guidance issues. These are class councils that will take less into account grades, but rather focus on students' projects. Ultimately, this will lead to trajectories for young people that are less imposed. And that is a radical difference,” concludes Julien Fernandez.
