Rouages: “Behind any career guidance project lies the question of identity”
Cheikh Latrache and Matthieu Evrard are 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 of study and prepare for their careers. This month, as part of the “Rouages” video series produced byUM, they tell us about their work.
I’m talking about a time that people over 30 can’t remember—a time when we no longer talk about guidance counselors but rather about national education psychologists. Their mission? To help students succeed by supporting them as they develop their educational and career plans.“With more than 26,000 degree 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 atUM three years after working in France’s overseas territories.
Like him, there are four of them—employed by the regional education office but seconded part-time to the Joint Service for Information, Guidance, and Career Integration (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 department dedicated to support and career placement, and a third department responsible for conducting surveys on students’ career outcomes.
More than 700 students each 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 the first year of undergraduate studies (L1) to the master’s level and sometimes even the doctoral level.“Half of the students come to seek guidance on 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, the National Education System’s educational psychologists draw not only on their knowledge of academic tracks and careers but also on students’ self-awareness.“We try to align students’ interests, qualities, values, and skills with a specific type of career or academic track. The psychological aspect is central,” explains Matthieu Evrard, who holds a master’s degree in psychology. This is a requirement for obtaining 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 as part of 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 undergraduate or continuing education programs—to begin developing a project-based approach on their own,” continues Cheikh Latrache. “We also offer the C3R certification—for ‘succeed, react, bounce back’—which helps 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 the National Education System’s psychologists as“magicians capable of guiding them with a wave of a magic wand,” these professionals have a well-stocked toolbox at their disposal: career guidance tools such as personality tests and questionnaires; well-known resources such as Onisep, the CIDJ, andthe 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
These tools have certainly made it easier to access information on education and career guidance, but they have also profoundly transformed the process: “With Parcoursup, young people have a clearer idea than we did in my day of what’s out there, ” explains Matthieu Evrard. “On the other hand, there’s something a bit time-consuming and anxiety-inducing about having to submit a certain number of choices and stick to a schedule.” ” This anxiety-inducing aspect may be increasingly prevalent in the work of school psychologists within the national education system.
“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,”emphasizesCheik Latrache. “It requires listening, compassion, and the ability to be receptive to what others are asking for. ”“Behind any career guidance project lies the question of identity—of the place one will occupy in society—and so students often arrive under a great deal of stress. Our work also aims to reduce that stress by providing some leeway within a world of constraints, ” concludes Matthieu Evrard.