After her professional “machining” baccalaureate, which she will pass this year, Aurélia Coule, 18, “wants to continue in BTS for [s]‘enrich’. Valentin Badou, 19, has “looking forward to work”, in his favorite field, boilermaking, when he has obtained his professional baccalaureate. In their blue outfit flocked with the Airbus logo, they found here “discipline, a good atmosphere, attentive teachers, spacious and modern workshops, and the assurance of finding a job”.
“Here” is the Airbus high school. A unique establishment in France, created in 1949 in the Saint-Eloi factory, a stone’s throw from the city center of Toulouse, in the heart of the aircraft manufacturer’s factories, from which the aircraft engine masts still emerge, an element of very high technology which makes it possible to connect the engine to the wing.
After the war, Louis Casado, an engineer, had the idea of opening a training center for young people: the Professional School of the Aeronautical Industry. The establishment became private in 1981, bound by a contract with the Ministry of Education, then was renamed Private Vocational High School for the Aeronautical Industry and “Airbus High School” in 2006. With a clear objective: “Training young people from the age of 15 in specific aeronautical professions and in a real corporate culture”details Nicolas Coadou, 42, director of the establishment since 2020.
“We will increase recruitments »
Electricity, boilermaking, machining, mechanical production, painting, cabin integration, the “Airbus craftsmen” are trained through several diplomas, from CAP to BTS, via the professional baccalaureate. The school, and its fifty employees, receives about 500 students per year, with an annual renewal rate of 120 young people, out of a little over 500 students in all. “Faced with the increases in production announced by Airbus, we are even going to increase 20% the recruitment of these students”says Mr. Coadou.
On March 18, during open days, more than 1,700 young people came to discover the courses offered. With a surprise guest, Guillaume Faury, the executive director of the Airbus group. Each year, out of 500 applications, 120 students are integrated, after an online personality test, then an interview with a teacher and an employee of the company. “We train them in techniques, but also in values such as respect and team spirit”says the director.
With an assumed desire to open these courses to young girls, who currently represent only 25% of the workforce. A diversity also sought for young people from priority education areas, and even within the teaching teams.
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