Between the two rounds of the French local elections, BBC correspondent Emma
Jane Kirby is travelling around France, testing the temperature of voters.
In Montpellier, she is told that France's education system is completely out of
sync with the world of business.
Montpellier is very much a young person's city. Students make up 30% of its
population, and the pavement cafes are swarming with youngsters who are
furiously scribbling in note books or dashing off the final lines of essays.
But despite the nationwide passion for education, surprisingly, not a single
French university makes it into the world's top 40.
France may be a global leader in high technology, but employers complain that
today there are far too few students studying science and technology and there
are far too many studying "soft subjects" which leaves them ill-prepared to
join the real world of work.
At Montpellier's Social Science faculty, I watched scores of undergraduates
soak up a lecture on basic psychology.
I have studied so much, I am almost overqualified. And now I need a job to
get money and I can't find one
Aurelie
There are 65,000 psychology students in France - that is a quarter of the
European total for that subject.
I asked a passing student what he wanted to do when he left university. "I want
to be an eternal student, " he said. "Just learning for learning's sake."
'Rigid system'
A noble sentiment perhaps, but an impractical one in 21st Century France where
unemployment has been doggedly high for the past 20 years.
In France, many young people don't study the right subjects
Agnes Urhweiller
Montpellier careers office
The national unemployment rate may have recently fallen to just under 8%, but
in Montpellier it stands at 11.3%.
At the local careers office, counsellor Agnes Urhweiller told me she worried
that the French education system was completely out of sync with the world of
business.
Ms Urhweiller regularly sees hundreds of students who are well qualified but
who have no real skills to offer employers.
"In France, many young people don't study the right subjects," she said as she
marked a skills test for a young job seeker.
"I advise them they need practical qualifications to work. I come from the
private sector and I know that private businesses need young people and, of
course, that is where the money is, too. But our education system is a 'has
been' - it's too rigid," Ms Urhweiller said.
Baffled
A recent survey showed that 75% of graduates want to work in the public sector
because civil servants and teachers enjoy a high level of social protection.
But President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to slash thousands of civil servant
posts, and a recent economic report commissioned by the government has warned
that people must accept the future is not with the state, but with private
industry.
Among the youngsters I met searching for jobs at the careers office was
23-year-old Aurelie. She is still baffled as to what she wants to do.
"I have studied so much, I am almost overqualified. And now I need a job to get
money and I can't find one," she said.
"Everyone tells you to get a good education but my parents studied much less
than I did and yet they didn't have such problems finding work."
'Born into uncertainty'
Marc Willinger, an economist at Montpellier University, believes young people
today live in a more precarious world than their parents did.
Not only is finding permanent work more difficult, but - with the state coffers
empty - their retirement will not be cushioned by the government hand outs
their parents will enjoy.
This generation is having to fend for itself like never before.
"The young generation has been born into uncertainty," Mr Willinger said.
"And they have to live with that every day - not just because of unemployment
but also because they have a much higher burden than the previous generation.
They will have to care for themselves, for their children and they'll also have
to care for their parents' generation."
'Only a waitress'
A few streets away from the university campus I visited a local hostel which
provides cheap lodgings for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Anthony and Kia were playing table football outside the cafeteria. When I asked
them what they wanted the government to do to help them succeed in life, both
were surprised at the notion that the state should step in to help them.
Kia, who is training to be a waitress, told me she thought young people's
expectations were too high.
She said that while some might scoff that she was "only a waitress", she
enjoyed her work and believed it was a good thing to get a job and to get on
with life.
Anthony, aged 20, is in the catering business. He was also adamant that young
people should stand on their own two feet.
"I don't have any family," he said.
"But you can't say the government has to help me because I don't have parents -
I can't blame them. Young people are often lazy and think everything is owed to
them but we need to work and to prove ourselves and then we can have dignity."
Although he claimed not to be a fan of Mr Sarkozy's, there is no doubt that the
president would be a fan of Anthony's.
Sarkozy's vision
The sentiments expressed by Anthony and Kia could almost be Mr Sarkozy's UMP
party slogans.
His election campaign last year was run on the mantra: "Work harder if you want
to earn more."
And the president still speaks wistfully of a "La France qui se leve tot" (a
France which gets up early) - and is ready to go to work.
As I left the hostel, Anthony was preparing to spend his evening in his tiny
bedroom listening to teach-yourself-English CDs and teach-yourself-Japanese.
I told him I was impressed with his drive and enthusiasm, and he replied shyly
that his dream was to one day enrol at university to study psychology.
I could almost feel President's Sarkozy's heart sink.
France has educated many of the world's greatest intellectuals and is
justifiably proud of its erudite heritage.
But with such poor economic growth and such huge public debt, this country now
needs its clever young students to leave the university campus and start
ploughing their skills and enthusiasms into the profitable world of work.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7293992.stm
Published: 2008/03/14 00:43:29 GMT