An immersive day discovering agricultural professions

For this day of discovery of agricultural professions, the challenge is twofold: to offer training and employment opportunities to young people leaving the school system, and to allow the agricultural world to renew its ranks, while this problem is become more and more significant in the very short term.

As if on purpose: what could be better than a lousy October day, in pouring rain, to discover the daily life of a goat farm, near Les Cars in Haute-Vienne? At least there is no deception on the merchandise.

The eight young people who came left the school system without a diploma. As part of a youth employment contract, the objective of which is to initiate different approaches linked to the construction of a professional project, they are looking for a vocation, or at least, prospects.

To do this, the ERIP (regional local information space for southern Haute-Vienne) organized a double visit for them this October 1, on the farm, then at the professional training and agricultural promotion center (CFPPA). which depends on the agricultural high school of Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche.

For Flora Martin, from ERIP, the challenge is twofold: “The exchange with the farmer allows young people to immerse themselves in his daily life, to know his journey, his activities. Then the CFPPA provides them with information on training and the discovery of job opportunities. They can thus build their own courses. And if we offer this type of action, to young people not necessarily from the agricultural sector, it is because the agricultural world is today the first sector to recruit, in Haute-Vienne, and which has a strong need for labor“.

These are the same reasons that pushed Anne Paraud, the farmer with whom the young people were, and the CFPPA, to participate in this action.

For the breeder, “If we don’t open our farms, how can young people discover our jobs? Because we must attract them, especially those who do not come from an agricultural background“.

According to her, who recognizes problems at this level, “it is not only important for the renewal of generations, but also for the evolution and future of agriculture. It’s true that we have complicated jobs, that it takes willpower to do them, but it’s possible. There are farms to take over, there is a diversity of sectors, all of this can allow young people to find the production that suits them. We really need this, to feed ourselves on the one hand, and ensure the future of our countryside on the other.”

Same story with René Fauché, the director of the CFPPA of Saint-Yrieix: “We need to raise awareness of agricultural professions, because we have a very strong demand in terms of employment, in all sectors of the agricultural world. A demand especially for trained employees. We work differently today than before, technologies have changed, there are drones, IT, you also need to be trained in this. In the next 4 to 5 years, nearly 50% of the region’s farmers will hand over, because they are retiring, and we will have to fill this void, either with hired labor or by people to install. But we won’t do the installation again one for one. Hence the importance of this type of action“.

Perhaps this day will have sparked a vocation among the young people present, but at least they will have discovered a sector with numerous training courses and opportunities. And if it’s not them, there will surely be others. The next session of this type will take place in the Saint-Junien sector on October 9.