It's time to make choices.
But they are difficult to do.
The Parcoursup platform, which allows Terminale students to express their first year assignments in higher education, as well as certain students to reorient themselves, opens its doors on Wednesday, all in a context of a pandemic of Covid-19 which complicates the situation for applicants.
The official calendar provides that the first period lasts until March 11.
It is then possible to make ten wishes.
Ten “additional wishes for apprenticeship training” can also be expressed.
From May 27 to July 16 will be the period of responses and assignments but also… of absence of assignment.
In the latter case, a “complementary phase” will be in place until September 16.
For each wish, young people must explain their motivation in a few lines.
An “Avenir sheet” will also be sent to universities and selective training courses, which contains the teachers' assessment and the opinion of the school head.
Students are recommended not to make just one wish or to apply only to selective courses so as not to end up on the floor.
❓ How do I register and complete my file?
How many wishes to make?
What are the selective trainings?
...
💡 All the information on #Parcoursup is available in our #FAQ.
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- Parcoursup (@parcoursup_info) January 15, 2021
But this year, due to the Covid-19 crisis, the orientation course sometimes turns into an obstacle course because the traditional fairs bringing together all the training courses or even the open doors of schools can no longer be held "face to face".
They are done "at a distance", on a computer.
“It is clearly not the same to obtain information from a distance.
Human relations are so important in the context of orientation that it is inevitably less good, but we do with it, ”says Benjamin, 18, in Terminale in Paris.
"We know very well how much direct dialogue with higher education establishments at trade fairs helps them make their choice, knowing that Parcousurp is also coming," explains Charlotte Vanpeene in charge of press relations at L'Etudiant, who ensures "to do the maximum to allow young people to have the same quality of exchanges".
The pandemic shatters some study prospects
Another consequence of the crisis is that Terminale students sometimes see their career dreams evaporate.
“My parents were to help me finance a business school next year and unfortunately, both being uncertain about their work after several months of health crisis, I will have to give up and think about a new orientation.
It's sad and it worries me, ”regrets Audrey, in Terminale near Nice (Alpes-Maritimes).
Benjamin, him, gave up going to study abroad once his baccalaureate in his pocket.
"We just discussed it with my parents and they convinced me that it was perhaps not a good idea to find yourself potentially stranded in a distant country, without friends or family in the event of confinement", says- he, preferring to "check the option of a DUT in marketing technology or a business school" close to his parents.
Success of sectors where young people can be physically present
This year, many high school students say they are leaning towards studies in BTS, DUT or preparatory classes, which ensure them, in the event of a health blow, more face-to-face lessons, unlike the faculty, penalized by distance lessons.
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As for the main teachers, responsible for managing the orientation of students in Terminale, the time is also of concern.
"We do everything possible to guide them as best as possible by being very responsive, but with part-time teaching in high school, it's very complicated," says François Desnoyer, maths teacher at the Toulouse academy.
And he notes this year a "particularity".
"In a general Terminale class, all my students without exception refuse university and go to preparatory classes which operate at full speed and which reassure them because they will be supervised and not left to themselves as at university ".