Rouages: “Behind every career guidance project lies the question of identity”
Cheikh Latrache and Matthieu Evrard are school psychologists with the French Ministry of Education. Seconded by the regional education office to the SCUIO-IP, they advise, guide, and listen to students at the University of Montpellier as they choose their programs and prepare for their careers. This month, as part of the “Rouages” video series produced by the UM, they tell us about their work.
I’m talking about a time that those over 30 may not remember—a time when we no longer refer to “career counselors” but to “school psychologists.” Their mission? To help students succeed by supporting them as they develop their educational and career plans.“With over 26,000 programs available right after high school and 11,500 different careers, many students feel lost or overwhelmed. We’re here to guide and support them through this complexity,” explains Matthieu Evrard, who has held this position at UM for three years after working in France’s overseas territories.
Like him, there are four of them, employed by the school district but seconded part-time to the Joint Service for Information, Guidance, and Career Placement (SCUIO-IP). “We’re a small cog in a larger machine—the SCUIO-IP—which comprises several departments,” explains Cheikh Latrache, who has been working in Montpellier for nearly 20 years. Alongside the guidance and information service, where those nicknamed the “EN psychologists” work, there is a service dedicated to support and career placement, and a third service responsible for conducting surveys on students’ career outcomes.
More than 700 students per year
We head to the Science Library on the Triolet campus, where the two professionals welcome more than 700 students each year—not only from the Faculty of Sciences, of course, but also from various IUTs, the IAE, and Polytech—enrolled in programs ranging from freshman year through master’s degrees and sometimes even doctoral studies.“Half of the students come to explore changing their academic focus, while the other half come to develop a plan for continuing their studies with a professional goalin mind,” explains Cheikh Latrache.
To provide the best possible guidance, school counselors draw not only on their knowledge of academic tracks and careers but also on students’ self-awareness.“We try to match students’ interests, qualities, values, and skills with a specific type of career or academic track. The psychological dimension is central,” explains Matthieu Evrard, who holds a master’s degree in psychology. This is a requirement for eligibility for the DECOP, the state-certified diploma for guidance counselors and psychologists.
A well-stocked toolbox
In addition to individual counseling sessions, these psychologists also provide guidance through group sessions organized at the request of academic units and departments across all University of Montpellier campuses, including the satellite campuses in Béziers and Nîmes.“The goal here is for students, whether in initial or continuing education, to begin developing their own project-based approach,” continues Cheikh Latrache. “We also offer the C3R certification—for succeeding, reacting, and bouncing back—which enables students who have dropped out to develop a plan for the future and acquire written and oral communication skills.”
Faced with students who are tempted to view school counselors as“magicians capable of guiding them with a wave of a magic wand,” these professionals have a well-stocked toolkit at their disposal: career guidance tools such as personality tests and questionnaires; well-known resources such as Onisep, the CIDJ, orthe IJBox; digital workspaces that now provide access to the employment resource guide; government platforms such as trouvermonmaster.gouv.fr and, of course, Parcoursup.
A world of constraints
Tools that have certainly made it easier to access information on education and career guidance, but which have also profoundly transformed the process: “With Parcoursup, young people have a much clearer idea than we did in my day of what’s out there, ” explains Matthieu Evrard. “On the other hand, there’s something about it that’s a bit time-consuming and anxiety-inducing, with a set number of choices and a schedule to follow. ” An anxiety-inducing aspect that may be increasingly present in the work of school psychologists.
“We step in to help people at a time when they’re questioning themselves and feeling uncertain, and it’s this kind of support that I really enjoy,”saysCheik Latrache. “It requires listening, empathy, and the ability to respond to what the other person needs. “Behind any career guidance project lies the question of identity—of the place one will occupy in society—and so students often arrive with a very high level of stress. Our work also aims to reduce this stress by providing some leeway within a world of constraints,” concludes Matthieu Evrard.