Digital agency communication is over for Elise Sanceaume. The 34-year-old Parisian, a graduate of an art school and a master’s degree in publishing, has taken a radical turn this year: she is following a ten-month training course to obtain the professional agricultural patent at the Ecole Du Breuil, installed in the Bois de Vincennes, real sesame to get started in this field. On the training menu: the learning of organic market gardening techniques, but also courses in law, accounting, project management, soil biology… All accompanied by practical activities in the ten-hectare vegetable garden that has the structure. Soon, Elise Sanceaume intends to settle down as a farmer. “Ideally, I would like to create a place with an agricultural activity, open to the public. In the meantime, I intend to multiply the experiences in arboriculture, soap making, canning, to have a vision of what I want to do »she explains.
As much to say it right away: the students of the Ecole Du Breuil do not resemble the traditional public of professional agricultural certificates. The establishment, the only one to offer this training in Paris, mainly welcomes young graduates or executives in retraining. The current promotion includes former communicators, a marketing manager, a journalist, a costume designer, a lawyer… Parisians who left their jobs sometimes after one or two years of practice, sometimes after fifteen or twenty years in the profession. An aspiration associated, for most of these city dwellers, with strong environmental convictions and a desire to live closer to nature.
“Rethinking the Ile-de-France agricultural model”
Sylvia Madec, 42, who worked in marketing for the tourism sector, explains her desire for retraining by a feeling of “loss of meaning” in his profession, coupled with a “ecoanxiety” become difficult to manage. “At one point, it was obvious: I wanted to work in contact with the plant world, to have a place that better suited me in society”, she describes. The training of the Ecole Du Breuil, very recent (it has only been certified since 2020), receives more than a hundred applications for its two sessions of twenty-five places. Most students obtain funding to cover the 7,800 euros in tuition fees, thanks to retraining assistance schemes for job seekers, their personal training account (CPF), or funds allocated to continuing education in their companies.
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