Mobility of young people

Visuel
Mobility of young people
Type of text :
Opinion
Type of referral :
Government referral
Working group :
Section for Education, Culture and Communication
Date d'adoption
Date adopted : 11/09/2011
Rapporteur(s) :
Photo
Jean-François BERNARDIN
Enterprise Group
    Overview
    Présentation

     

    Mobility in France: the restraints upon mobility are numerous (administrative, financial, tied to infrastructures or socio-cultural). These difficulties are strongly correlated to social and territorial inequalities.

    These restraints merit being better understood in order to be able to remove them. In this respect, housing is the main head of expenditure in the case of mobility. For a young person, whether he is a student, an apprentice, working, or seeking work, transportation difficulties and the cost thereof can also constitute a significant obstacle, particularly in outlying suburban and isolated rural areas.

    Mobility increases with the level of qualification. In the case of technical education, in vocational schools or CFA’s (Centres de Formation d’Apprentis – Apprentice Training Centres), young people more often prefer proximity to the establishment to the detriment of a curriculum that they are more motivated to study. They are therefore orientated by default.

    If mobility remains weak for undergraduate degrees, it is more widespread for masters and doctorates. At this level of study, young people have a better defined career plan and for this reason seek more specialist education than those at undergraduate level. These courses are not always available nearby. The propensity to be mobile therefore becomes stronger. The total number of students concerned (postgraduates; 96,400 masters awarded in 2008) however remains quite small.

    International Mobility:

    it only concerns 16% of students (30,000 for ERASMUS) to which are added 2,000 young people for LEONARDO and a limited number of teachers and students for COMENIUS. It is expedient to add a further 8,000 young people on the basis of the "Youth in Action" programme, 62,000 young researchers and 9,500 young volunteers in VIE (Volontariat International en Entreprises – International Volunteers in Business), VIA (Volontariat International en Administration – International Volunteer in Administration) and VSI (Volontaires de Solidarité Internationale – Volunteers for International Solidarity.

    To the difficulties already listed in terms of national mobility, it is necessary to add administrative restraints and restrictions upon the recognition of prior learning.