Varia n° 136
Only abstracts are in English (Texts are in French)
Editorial: Pathway Choice and the Education-to-work Transition: The Construction of Trajectories between the Individual and Collective
Labour market trajectories are becoming increasingly diverse, particularly for young people. They are determined by the current proliferation of education and training pathways (from formal education to MOOCs), the differentiation of employment regimes (from permanent employment to temporary agency work, or even self employment) and uncertainties in the labour market and the wider economy.
How are trajectories constituted in such a fluid environment? Drawing on several examples from a number of different countries, this issue prompts us to regard individual trajectories as embedded within collective structures.
Thus in Switzerland, young people’s employability has long been an integral element of education policy. Geneviève Mottet analyses the origins and rapid expansion of an active employment policy within the education system.
Nevertheless, individual histories and choices do not always encounter such institutional willingness to shape trajectories. In fact, young people wishing to embark on an apprenticeship are far from behaving as expected. As Marie-Hélène Jaques shows, some will continue in education even though they were following a course of training that was supposed to lead directly to employment, while others change direction or even drop out of their programmes in order to seek employment.
Thus the social diversity of families and the institutional diversity of the education system leave their mark on young people’s primary socialisation, which is constructed during childhood.
Lifelong learning is influenced to an even greater extent by the differentiation of trajectories. A qualification like that of professional football coach gives its holders access to a range of different jobs depending on the advantages accumulated during previous sporting and work experience, as Jean Bréhon, Hugo Juslowiak and Loïc Sallé explain.
Above and beyond identifiable individual characteristics (social background, education, jobs held), these trajectories are also shaped by the work environment, as Justine Arnoud and Cathel Kornig note. Thus for higher education and research professionals, the quality of their working lives (performance, health etc.) depends to a large extent on the psychosocial resources on which they are able to draw (notably autonomy, their work group, recognition from peers and managers, training, work tools and the new forms of organisation associated with institutional change).
However, this secondary socialisation sometimes remains incomplete, and institutions are also attempting to find solutions.
Thus in the case of Belgium, Julie Gérard and Didier Vrancken show how measures intended to help unskilled job seekers re-enter the labour market ultimately tend instead to acclimatise them to the uncertainty and unpredictability of life and labour market trajectories.
In France, firms that are awarded public contracts are under a contractual obligation to offer a minimum number of hours’ work to individuals at some distance from the labour market. Some of the beneficiaries of these clauses in public contracts subsequently manage to stabilise their labour market trajectories. According to Nathalie Havet, Alexis Penot and Morgane Plantier, whether or not these individuals remain in employment depends on the ability of this measure to improve their self-confidence and help them acquire training. This will be interesting to watch.
Happy reading.
An «active social» School for students active, qualified and well oriented
Geneviève Mottet
This paper reports on measures taken by the Ministry of Education in Geneva since the early 1990s, regarding the problem of young people’s employability. Based on an analysis of the political line and implemented policies of three successive Ministers of Education, the article reports on the genesis and development of an active social policy in the field of education. Thus, the reform was developed in two phases, each of which includes specific references to political action: that of the “Active School” (1990 - 2000) and that of the “Active Social School” (2000 - 2015).
Four years after middle school: feedback on apprenticeship aspirants courses
Marie-Hélène Jacques
Our investigation followed 14 teenagers during four years after they left middle school, expecting as a prioritary wish, to prepare a certificate of professional capacity with an alternance training. Based on recurrent interviews, our longitudinal analysis characterizes four different types of courses: those who continue their training after a first degree; those who quit and seek employment; those who change their professional orientation; those who encounter breaks in their course.
Trainer of professional football: route of a spoiled player?
Jean Bréhon, Hugo Juskowiak, Loïc Sallé
If the access to the occupation of trainer of football of the elite (league 1 and league 2) is regulated by selective formations and titles of which the French federation of football is only agent, does there exist a dominant ideal-typical figure of the technicians received with the Patent of professional trainer? We propose, in this article, to analyze the trajectories of the trainees received with the diploma for the occupation of trainer. For this purpose, we are interested particularly in the characteristics of the award-winnings, since 2002, to show that the access to the formation and the diploma, the position occupied at the entry on the market is closely related to advantages cumulated by the trainees during their career of player and technician.
From psychosocial risk to psychosocial resource: the challenge of activity development in employees in Higher Education and Research
Justine Arnoud, Cathel Kornig
This article focuses on a research conducted in a French public scientific organization. Through an approach based on the analysis of the activity, it examines work in the current context of Higher Education and Research as perceived by the employee and resources available to do a work “well done”. According to an analysis inspired by the work of Amartya Sen, it emerges that the approach of psychosocial resource and its motion is more promising for the development of the activity than the approach by psychosocial risks, so usually publicized. More broadly, the article questions the methods of prevention.
The activation to the insecurity of job seekers: two devices in French speaking part of Belgium
Julie Gérard, Didier Vrancken
The article analyses two activation devices in the French-speaking part of Belgium (a company of training through work and a service vouchers firm). It illustrates how, crossing employment policies of universal scope with particularistic policies for the most vulnerable people, brings out true traps of insecurity. This raises the question of the progressive development of a new regime of protection, operating at least, with the low qualified people facing the threat posed to the black market and, more broadly, labor informality.
Occupational outlooks for the recipients of an integration clause in public procurements
Nathalie Havet, Alexis Penot, Morgane Plantier
The French Code of Public Procurement allows to specify explicit integration clauses (i.e. social criteria) in public tenders. The successful tenderers are required to offer a minimal number of work hours to people with the weakest access to the labour market. This paper aims at studying the medium-term outlooks of the recipients of these clauses (6 to 20 months later). Our study is based on a telephone survey carried out with a representative recipients panel in the Lyon area. Our results highlight that some recipients improve their careers with an access to permanent employment. They show also that the duration of the clause, its capacity to make the recipients acquire a vocational training and to improve their self-confidence make it easier for people to get or retain jobs in the medium term.
