Rencontres avec des pros provides live videoconferences with professionals to support students’ exploration of jobs and career pathways. Through direct interaction with workers from different sectors and backgrounds, the initiative aims to help students understand working life. Students can ask questions and reflect on their educational and career choices. The resource is used in both lower- and upper-secondary education.
Rencontres avec des pros: Live career talks with professionals
Abstract
Website: Rencontres avec des pros
Rencontres avec des pros (“Meetings with professionals”) is used in schools as part of structured career education activities involving live videoconferences. Teachers register their classes for sessions organised around specific themes or economic sectors. Before each session, students prepare using teaching guides, which include activities such as exploring job profiles and reflecting on their skills and interests.
During each session, professionals present their work, often filmed in their workplace, and demonstrate tools, equipment or typical tasks. Speakers describe their education and training pathways, including direct routes into their occupations and pathways involving changes in study or career direction. Students can ask questions live through chat or submit them in advance by email.
Professionals receive guidance on adapting their language to students’ age and school level, avoiding technical jargon and focusing on aspects of their work, skills and career pathways that students can understand and relate to. This guidance aims to make the content accessible and encourage student interest.
Sessions are adapted to students’ age groups. For younger students (ages 12–14), sessions last around 45 minutes and feature one speaker. For older students (ages 15–18), sessions last around 50 minutes and typically involve two or three professionals. Events are sometimes linked to themed vocational weeks, such as those focusing on science, media or sustainability.
After the session, teachers use follow-up materials to support reflection and discussion. Most sessions are recorded and made available for replay.
The resource uses live video streaming through Microsoft Teams to host interactive sessions with professionals. Classes connect as a group, and students interact through chat or questions submitted in advance. Speakers may share videos or images from their workplace to illustrate their working environment and daily tasks.
Recorded sessions are securely hosted and are accessible only to registered users of Avenir(s), a national digital platform for education and career guidance in France. Launched in December 2024, Avenir(s) is designed for students in grades 7–12.
Rencontres avec des pros is also compatible with other Onisep digital tools, including job descriptions and teaching guides. It can be integrated into schools’ virtual learning environments alongside other educational platforms.
Rencontres avec des pros aims to support career guidance by extending students’ access to professionals and information about working life. It was introduced as a national initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic, when face-to-face guidance activities and work placements were suspended. Designed with distance-learning specialists, the initiative enables live, interactive exchanges with professionals without requiring students and speakers to be in the same location.
This format may be particularly useful for schools in rural areas and overseas territories, where access to a range of employers and professions can be limited. Speakers are selected from different personal and professional backgrounds, including women in fields where they are underrepresented. By presenting varied career pathways, the resource aims to broaden students’ awareness of possible careers and challenge stereotypes about education, training and work.
Structured teaching materials and delivery through the secure Avenir(s) platform are designed to support continued access to career education and student participation. The combination of workplace presentations, speakers from different backgrounds and remote access aims to make career education available to students across different locations and socio-economic backgrounds.
Participation requires reliable internet access and, ideally, a large screen so that students can clearly see the speakers. Where possible, cameras that allow speakers to see students can support interaction.
The resource is free of charge.
Teachers are encouraged to include the resource within a broader programme of career education. They can use the teaching guides to prepare students before each session, including exploring the occupations presented and preparing questions for professionals. Follow-up activities can help students reflect on what they have learned and relate it to their own educational and career planning.
This resource is government supported.
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