Future prospects for each teenager

Very often, middle and high school students living far from large cities face obstacles that reduce their future prospects.

This is not a marginal phenomenon, since 60% of young French people live in what we call the France of the territories: rural areas, small towns and medium-sized towns of less than 20,000 inhabitants.

Forgotten by equal opportunities systems, these students are dependent on the place where they live and study, and often find themselves helpless when it comes to their career choices. They may have difficulty finding the right information, imagining and building a personal and professional project that suits them. They often have only a limited vision of the possibilities available to them and do not clearly see the paths they could take to prepare for their future at the end of school.

With Chemins d’avenirs, Salomé Berlioux made the bet in 2016 to create for its young people an ecosystem of success to inform them, support them, promote their careers and their talents.  Hand in hand with National Education, families, businesses and civil society, Chemins d’avenirs today has 230 partner establishments in France, and supports nearly 2,900 young rural people each year, and 10,000 young people since 2016.

Since 2018, the year of the first support from the Michelin Corporate Foundation, nearly fifty Michelin employees have joined the mentoring adventure each year alongside Chemins d’avenirs. Becoming a mentor is the opportunity to support a young rural person in building their future project, it helps them to know themselves better, gain self-confidence and broaden their horizons.

After this first pilot phase within the Clermont-Ferrand academy, Chemins d’avenirs continues the deployment of its actions throughout France, the professionalization of its methods and structure, with the aim of maximizing its impact. Convinced that recognition of the issues of territorial divides and equal opportunities in rural areas must be a major priority for the future, the year 2024 is part of a dynamic of activating societal change in favor of young rural people.

Succeeding in this change of scale is a challenge that can only be achieved through the commitment of a competent and motivated team, and long-term support from mentors and partners.

“This engagement and this support are a resolutely positive sign, that of the confidence that we place in French youth. This youth who is already charting the paths of our future” Salomé Berlioux, founder and director Chemins d’avenirs