TARGETING SCHOOL WORK EXPERIENCE

The internship in the 9th grade : a source of inequalities 

In France, during the 9th grade, you have to find an internship to discover the world in companies. In fact, this week of discovering is a source of inequalities. As the minister of Education  says, this week is « The opportunity to discover the economic and professional world, to confront yourself to realities of a job and to confirm ones’ project occupation. » But in fact, finding an internship is a real puzzle for many college students, because of the location of the job or the chances of finding an internship that may interest them and not be a choice out of spite, which is the case for many of them. 

First of all, during this week, you cannot do anything, you just have to watch people doing their work and you take notes about it. 

Then, it is even more difficult for teenagers that come from parents who don’t have contacts. It is a non-fact that parents are used to help their children finding their internship. But, for parents that have no responsibilities in their companies, helping their children will be difficult. 

The real problem of this week, is that it must be an experience for independence, which is complex for some children. 

As a solution, the government might impose on every company to be open-minded in recruiting a middle-school student, by letting him do things (without endangering him of course), just for having an experience. 

A website has been created to help some children in inner area cities : « Viensvoirmontaff.com », offering internship to teenagers. 

Clément ROUX