The project is still on the website of the Pays des Écrins community of communes, but… the opening planned for 2027 will ultimately not take place. With the Haute École du Bois, presented as a “European campus” or an “engineering school” focused on woodworking professions, the inter-municipality aimed to attract 400 students per yearon two sites. A project that raised a lot of hope, until our colleagues from Dauphine Liberated reveal its abandonment in August 2024.
It is difficult to know exactly why the project fell through: at the intercommunality of Pays des Écrins, based in L’Argentière-la-Bessée, no contact has provided an answer. “I’m not the best person to talk about it… It’s political…”responds a member of the intercommunality, adding that “nothing is certain yet in this case.”
“No guarantees”
Is the explanation to be found on the side of the Region, as some local elected officials explained to the press in August? The latter, which supports the project, did not want to make a financial commitment to the level that the municipalities were hoping for.
On the wood industry side, others speak rather of a failure caused by poor design. “It was disconnected from needs, too ambitious”explains a Source close to the case.
“Certainly, there is a real need for training, which a certain number of organizations are already responding to: the Carmejane high school in Digne, the Embrun high school. On this new school project, there were no guarantees on the capacity to bring students in large numbers to this place, or speakers.”
