Grandstand. Masked by much more dramatic news, the establishment at 1er March of the Youth Commitment Contract (CEJ), could have marked a high point in the presidential campaign, a marker of the President of the Republic’s commitment to young people. It was also announced in this spirit in the summer of 2021, at a time when the impact of the health crisis on the economic and psychological health of young people was a source of concern.
There could have been a debate on the intensity of the mobilization, we could, on the one hand, have heard the criticism of the supporters of a young universal income who would undoubtedly have considered the initiative too timorous. On the other hand, the supporters of the balance of public accounts would no doubt have argued to them that the financial constraints were such that greater expenditure was not possible.
However, we can be delighted with this renewed commitment to the service of the professional integration of those whose school careers have been too chaotic for employment to naturally follow initial training.
Modernization
We can also rightly point out that this new system is part of a coherent institutional logic which entrusts local missions with the responsibility of implementing the obligation to train 16-18 year olds who drop out of the school system.
We can also share our pleasant surprise to see this device accompanied by a communication campaign and a mobile application, so many encouraging signs of a public action in the process of modernization.
In short, we can highlight this progress which, on the other hand, goes (almost) unnoticed.
And yet, the subject of the integration of young people deserves our interest as the CEJ underlines by its ambition the magnitude of the problem it seeks to solve. The question is not, in fact, that of the administrative efficiency of a new aid measure, nor even that of the level, decent or insufficient, of financial support for young people engaged in this journey towards employment and training. It is a bit that of the means to accompany well and not only to make a statistical processing, “adequationnist” of the insertion.
strange silence
We would benefit from asking ourselves about the very origin of these evils, more than about the curative treatments that seek to remedy them. We must ask ourselves about this strange silence that accompanies our shared observation of a disoriented youth rather than dreaming of its better future. How is it that our system produces with such regularity so many young people without sufficiently constructed projects to take the first successful steps?
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