France: Production schools - innovative training for NEETs

Production schools offer training that leads to a vocational qualification for young people who have dropped out of education. These schools achieve excellent results with their innovative ‘learning by doing’ teaching method. The Production schools’ network, which is growing, wishes to strengthen the institutional anchoring of this model.
Production schools provide young people aged 14 to 18 who have dropped out of school an alternative training path to obtaining a national VET qualification. This can be a professional skills certificate (CAP), a vocational baccalaureate (BACpro) or vocational certificates in occupations which are struggling to recruit: carpentry, metallurgy, automotive mechanics, collective catering and digital technology.
An educational model with excellent results
The originality of the Production school teaching method is that it is based on learning through producing products and services, in response to orders from real customers (companies or private individuals). Hands-on work predominates, with two thirds of the training time dedicated to this aspect and a third to theory. More...