Schools of Ecological Transition (ETRE) : discovering jobs in the green economy through practise
Using green manual jobs as an integration tool, the schools of ecological transition (ETRE) provide training courses adapted to the needs of young NEETs, combining the acquisition of green soft and hard skills with the discovery of job opportunities in the green economy. It already has 21 active or emerging schools in different places in France which adapt the ETRE pedagogy to the economic needs and social challenges of their territories.
National
France
Occitanie Region
Municipality of Paris
Municipality of Marseille
Municipality of Alénya
Municipality of Montpellier
Municipality of Lille
Municipality of Nantes
Municipality of Lourdes
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
ERASMUS
Through the mother organisation of ETRE schools, 3PA association, who has developed the very first school of ecological transition, we have benefited both from Erasmus+ and ESF Funds.
Currently we are leading an KA2 Project from the Call 2020 Round 3 KA2 - Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. The project is called "Re-engaging youth through green jobs" and aims to disseminate our eductional innovation in other european countries, mainly Greece and Cyprus.
In 2019 the project has also been supported through ESF Funds within the action line « Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) ».
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Réseau des écoles de la transition écologique ETRE Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: LOISIL Last name of representative: MATHILDE Gender: Female Nationality: France Function: President Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Bordeneuve Town: LAHAGE Postal code: 31370 Country: France Direct Tel:+33 6 21 93 38 99 E-mail:contact@ecole-transition.eu Website:http://ecole-transition.eu
Schools of ecological transition - ETRE’s main objective is to allow the more disadvantaged young people of French society to answer two major challenges faced by their generation : sustainability transition and entering the job market. That is why, we chose to approach the topic of environmental consciousness by the means of work in green and greening jobs.
In France, every year 100,000 young people leave the school system without a diploma, 56% of them end up unemployed. Today, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24 reaches 24,6%. At the same time, the green economy develops quickly, creating a need for skilled labour in green and greening jobs. Until 2050, according to ADEME (Ecological Transition Agency), 900.000 new jobs will be created in the context of the sustainability transition.
Our schools of ecological transition - ETRE bring together these two dynamics in order to propose an innovative solution to youth looking for vocational orientation and employment opportunities all the while equipping the economy with the green skills necessary to realise a genuine transition. The main missions of the project are the re-engagement, orientation and qualification of youth with difficulties in their educational background through green and greening jobs. The approach works because of its focus on practice and experimentation. Through practice instead of theory, we are able to have an impact on young people that are often not interested in conventional environmental education.
In 2023, 19 schools across France will be offering courses to young people. Depending on the local context, they have specialised in various sectors of ecological transition: eco-construction, organic farming and food, mobility, circular economy, landscaping, energy transition.
NEETs
Education and Training
Ecological Transition
Green Economy
Practise-oriented pedagogy
The decarbonisation of the European economy will go along with deep changes in the labour market. Reducing the environmental footprint of our economies will imply changes in technology, skill requirement and work organisation in all activity sectors and along the whole value chain.
Within the actions of a single program, the schools of ecological transition ETRE respond to 3 problems simultaneously:
> a sustainability transition that lacks consideration for social justice goals, by turning disadvantaged youth into active participants of this transition,
> youth unemployment by re-engaging and qualifying young NEETs through vocational training in green and greening jobs,
> the lack of green skills becoming an obstacle to the development of a green economy by providing the economy with a skilled workforce that can apply new environmental practices within a multiplicity of different green and greening jobs.
All of these problems occur on a national, even international scale. Even though the awareness for green and greening jobs has increased these last years, it mainly focuses on higher and university education. There are nearly no VET centres today integrating green skills in their training. The schools of ecological transition are the first and only field actors today in France, working on endowing young NEETs with the technical and soft skills necessary to be a worker (not manager) in the green economy.
Furthermore, our schools contribute to making the young NEETs actors of the ecological transition. By endowing them with green skills and working on their environmental consciousness, 80% of participants are capable of identifying problems, causes and solutions to environmental issues and translate this knowledge into their everyday actions, by reducing their environmental footprint.
The schools of ecological transition - ETRE offers an aesthetic experience to the young people enrolled in our programmes through reconnection with nature, through strengthening self-confidence and through building a sense of community.
The first experience of the schools is to help vulnerable youth to reconnect with nature. Using natural or recycled materials in their daily work, being surrounded with nature and integrating its preservation in each moment of the day help the youth to reconnect with nature and strengthen their commitment to protect their direct and less direct natural environment.
The second experience happening during an ETRE programme is the methodology of learning by doing that offers strong reconnection of the participants to themselves. Achieving every day concrete objects or actions that could benefit the whole community is a great reward for youth and contributes to develop their self confidence. Moreover, this methodology allows the protection of traditional and ancestral know-how along with connecting generations together. The intervention of craftsmen and women in the different training brings different generations together.
Finally, the experience ETRE embodies a collective approach in its different programmes as well as in the daily organisation of the different schools. Youth learn how to act, think and organise collectively for the common good of the school and the group. Through this experience, the youth grow their collective spirit and sense of citizenship which prepares this generation to build a more collective and solidarity society.
The schools of ecological transition ETRE bring two problematic social dynamics (increasing school-dropout rates and lack of skills in the green economy) together, thereby turning a double social problem into an innovative solution. The need to decarbonise our economy is responded to by offering young school dropouts the opportunity to integrate training in green and greening jobs, using an alternative pedagogy adapted to their needs and desires.
Instead of forcing a person back into the standard educational environment, ETRE schools offer an alternative solution for those youth who haven’t been able to conform to conventional 8 hour classroom days. By privileging practical and manual education over theoretical classes, our training courses are designed to help these young people evolve from their motivational and attitude issues to the acquisition of a qualification and their insertion into the job market.
The small size of the groups (8 maximum) allows the trainers to adapt to the personal situations of the participants while leading a collective support. It is thus possible to work on potential barriers to employment (mobility, housing, resources, health) in partnership with local structures.
With our social partners (local missions, employment centres, neighbourhood associations, social centres, etc.), we work to identify youth far from employment and training who need it the most. We also try to ensure diversity in our courses: men and women, young people from different neighbourhoods/villages, youth with different personal issues, etc.
All the courses offered in our schools are free for the participants, as well as meals and transportation. This increases the accessibility of our programmes to people lacking financial stability.
Every young person that enters an ETRE school, becomes an active participant in his own training. They fix their own objectives for their training, co-construct the program, and give feedback at the end of every day and week. The programmes are thought to be flexible so that they can adapt to every new group, their needs and desires.
Moreover, we encourage our participants to hold monthly so-called “réunions jeunes”. These are meetings between all participants in the school, allowing them to express and debate current school internal issues or needs, to foster constructive dialogue and propose concrete solutions. During these meetings, two or three spokespersons are designated who mediate the dialogue and report and discuss urgent issues with the schools staff. Besides informing the schools decision making, these meetings are also an inherent part of the citizenship experience and empowerment ETRE schools are working towards. They allow participants to make democratic experiences, learn to express and mediate their concerns and act as active and constructive citizens.
All ETRE schools are created through significant partnership work in order to involve surrounding professionals in the design and implementation of courses, but also with public institutions that can provide more or less support and echo to the work of the schools. Finally, schools also make it possible to revitalise a neighbourhood or an entire village by organising one-off actions, but also by uniting a community around its approach. In most of our schools, young people take part in projects that aim at renovating public places or constructing objects for shared use (compost bins, reused outdoor furniture, bicycle shelters, etc.)
Our courses can also be a form of prevention of problematic behaviour for some young people and thus help them better find their place to contribute to society.
Schools of ecological transition - ETRE rely on a wide variety of partners at different levels. At the local level, each school carries out local stakeholders mapping to identify the needs of young people, businesses and prescribers in its territory. To create relevant and varied courses, each school works closely with a variety of local partners (craftsmen, local businesses, training centres, etc.) who work with youth. Local companies are also major partners in welcoming young people in immersion and possibly even recruiting them in the future. Social prescribers are also involved in identifying and mobilising young people. Finally, each school works in close collaboration with local authorities, in particular the municipality in which they are based, to identify priority sectors of activity and the social work to be carried out.
At the regional level, the schools of ecological transition - ETRE are in contact with the regional authorities which are major actors in employment and vocational training in France. In the Occitanie region, the ETRE schools have signed an agreement to work on the development of green skills at the regional level. Exchanges are currently underway with other regions of France to position the ETRE schools in these territories as relevant players in training for manual trades in the ecological transition.
At the national level, the network of ETRE schools has developed a large number of partnerships in the sector of ecological transition such as the ecological transition campus (https://campus-transition.org/) and the major schools of ecological transition (https://www.grandesecolestransition.fr/). Besides, the network engages with national foundations whose aim is to strengthen the impact of innovative projects such as the Fondation de France, La France s'engage or the development of green skills in the labour market such as the Adecco Group foundation.
Our training courses are cross-cutting and touch on several sectors of activity linked to the ecological transition. They are as varied as sustainable mobility (bike repair, cyclo-logistics, bike driving training), the question of bio-waste and composting, the circular economy and reuse but also sustainable construction, landscaping, organic farming and sustainable food as well as the question of an energy transition (including renewable energies) are part of our training programs. Through practical workshops and meetings with professionals, knowledge of several areas of ecology is transmitted to young people during the course : knowledge about fauna and flora, habitats, the concept of carbon footprint, etc.
Our method based on ‘learning by doing’ is nourished by an active pedagogy and participatory facilitation tools coming from popular education. These tools encourage each person to speak up and take ownership at their own pace rather than a top-down approach.
Socio-professional support is also a major component of our project. Each young trainee benefits from individual support to help them work on their professional orientation, on social obstacles and support towards employment. This requires skills related to the sciences of education, psychology and sociology.
Furthermore, in the context of our scaling strategy we have established a scientific committee, composed of 6 voluntary researchers, representing multiple scientific disciplines. One working group of this committee works on researching impact and effects of an active pedagogy and works on innovations to our programmatic model to make it even more impactful. The other working group creates projections on the employment and skill needs of tomorrow, working to align our training models with the economies’ needs, thus maximising our participants' chances of finding employment.
First of all, our solution brings two problematic dynamics (school-dropouts and lack of green skills) together, thereby turning a double problem into an innovative solution. Secondly, we use green skills as a re-integration and environmental education tool simultaneously. Many of the youth who approach us are looking for rapid integration into the job market in order to make ends meet. We train young people in jobs that are actually accessible today for low-qualified youth, while also endowing them with the green skills needed to sustainably transform these jobs. Lastly, our approach works because of its focus on practice and experimentation. Through practice instead of theory we are able to have an impact on young people that are often not interested in conventional environmental education.
Most solutions existing today focus either on environmental education or professional insertion. However, environmental education initiatives often do not have a grip on our most vulnerable youth while specialised VET centres usually don't involve green skills or green(ing) jobs. What makes our project unique is the combination of both : integration of the most vulnerable into the labour market through an active pedagogy AND the training in green professional skills.
We have created an innovative combination that is simultaneously providing ecological consciousness, focus on a population that is at high risk of social and professional exclusion and endow the economy with green skills.
The first ETRE school was created in 2017 in Lahage, a village located in the Toulouse region. Very quickly, 4 schools were created in other regions. As the challenges ETRE schools are tackling are present in all regions of France, both in rural and urban areas, and because of the great replicability of the ETRE methodology in structures of different natures, it seemed natural to the founder of ETRE schools to think about and develop a replication strategy. Moreover, as the project received a lot of positive feedback, both from private and public actors and as the social impact measurements showed a positive impact on the participants, the network has been working since 2020 on bringing the schools of ecological transition to scale. This is why the ETRE Foundation and the ETRE Network Association were created as well as an incubator in 2022 that supports and accompanies 10 new structures or project leaders in the development of their ETRE school in a given territory every year.
These new schools are created through a social franchise model that combines a common brand, a formalised programmatic model, a personal and personalised support through coaching, training and the provision of documentation as well as the pooling of resources, pedagogical material and communication tools. All new schools are independent organisations, who receive the brand after going through a rigorous development procedure.
The ETRE network facilitates the sharing of resources and approaches between the 19 active or emerging schools in different territories.
We are currently reflecting on ways to open our courses to other audiences (older or more qualified) in the face of the significant requests that are coming our way. To encourage a mix of participants in our courses, 20% of the places available in our schools are already open to persons out of our core target (NEETs).
Our programmatic model has been formed by the concept “inclusion through work”.
In our schools of ecological transition, we follow the same logic - having an activity is an essential factor for social inclusion- while adapting it to a training context. By putting these young people in concrete work situations, providing them with a safe space to try themselves out, develop skills and work on their difficulties, we gently approach them towards entry into a qualifying vocational training or the labour market.
Furthermore, our ETRE schools have been influenced by the numerous pedagogical experiments that we have been leading for over 10 years. As early as 2008, we started to propose 10 days work-camps to those unable to find their place within traditional educational programmes. Since then, we have incrementally built our model in close cooperation with our beneficiaries. Listening to their feedback and needs has incited us to build a variety of different training programs that complement each other, leading to the pathway model we offer today.
In order to allow the young NEEts to progress step by step, the schools of ecological transition offer 3 complementary training programs:
> Re-engagement training : through an active pedagogy and a multiplicity of practical experiments, the participants discover environmental topics and new job opportunities in a lucid way all the while working on their soft skills and motivation.
>Pre-qualification training : is all about professional orientation. During 3 to 6 months, the participants experiment themselves within different green and greening jobs in order to develop basic technical skills and find their professional vocation.
>Qualifying vocational training : In this last programme, we teach young people a trade’s core competencies allowing them to acquire a nationally recognised diploma while also endowing them with the necessary skills to reduce their job’s environmental impact.
ETRE schools address 4 SDGs (No poverty, Quality education, Decent work and economic growth and Responsible Consumption and production) by contributing to:
> reduce the proportion of young NEETs (SDG 8) by offering the chance to discover a wide range of job opportunities in the field of ecological transition and to choose their professional orientation. Unemployment rates among youth are high in France (24%) in both rural and urbain areas.
> empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all youth (SDG 10). We offer free courses for disadvantaged youth who often do not have the opportunity to pay for training programs and who have no or little connection to professional networks.
> increase the number of workers with relevant skills for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship (SDG 4) We provide our apprentices with the necessary skills for the labour market while simultaneously endowing them with an ecological conscience. Our actions also impact the transformation of the professional sphere as ETRE schools provide the economy with a skilled workforce, capable of reducing the environmental impact of a given trade.
> ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature (SDG 12). Through the encounters with inspiring professionals explaining their professions but also the sustainability challenges, we believe that the young people will be more likely to change their daily habits and be committed to environmental protection.
> ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development (SDG 4). In our courses, young people discover projects and structures in their territory committed to protecting the environment or to approaches aimed at reducing their carbon footprint and negative externalities. Each discovery is a means of transmitting specific knowledge and skills related to sustainability.
Since the birth of the first school ETRE in 2017, around twenty schools have been created throughout France. The ambition is to support the creation of 10 new schools each year with the establishment in 2022 of an incubator aiming at transmitting the fundamentals of ETRE pedagogy and the methodology of setting up a school. Thanks to shared impact measurement tools, we are able to trace our overall impact which is consequently increased every year.
The perhaps most critical outcome is the integration of our beneficiaries into employment or training. In 2021, 69% of the young people who participated in at least one ETRE training course, found their way back into the educational system, training or the labour market. Almost 90% of participants leave the school with a positive project (training, employment, internship, civic service…). 2 out of 3 participants pursue a professional life in the ecological transition through training or employment in a green or greening job.
As a school of ecological transition, we work to endow our participants with an ecological conscience and to turn them into actors of the ecological transition both in their professional and personal life. Our impact analysis has shown that in 2021 80% of our youth have become eco-citizens : before-after training comparaisons have shown that ETRE schools have a real impact on knowledge on sustainability issues and that during the training young people start to actively participate to sustainability by changing their behaviour and consumption patterns.
One of the main elements, leading to successful professional reinsertion is the development of new soft skills and professional attitudes. In 2021 we measured this outcome through the end of the training survey, asking participants whether they feel like having acquired new soft skills that will help them on the job market or in training. 90% of students responded positively to this question.
First of all, we tackle the exclusive focus of green skill development in higher education, namely high status professions such as architects, engineers and product designers and work for the systematic integration of green skills into VET courses as well. Secondly, we work towards the rethinking of our social hierarchy of trades. The schools of ecological transition advocate for re-imagining the meaning of skilled work, so that people who work in manual or care jobs are valued alongside workers in so-called cognitive professions.
Our advocacy strategy is oriented towards the regional level, which holds the competence of VET training, as well as the national level. On both of these levels our advocacy efforts are already paying off : we have signed a framework convention with the region Occitanie, who therein recognizes ETRE as a specific training facility and opening financial streams to all schools carrying the label “ETRE”. And on the national level, one of the amendments we wrote for the Climate and Resilience Law, brought into parliament through MP Sandrine Mörch, has been approved by the Assemblée Nationale, thus bringing the so far neglected question of green vocational training into the bill.
