According to INSEE, disparities in the educational career of pupils from different social backgrounds are becoming increasingly wide. Thus, while over 80% of teachers’ and engineers’ children reach the baccalaureate without repeating a year and 25% go on to a grande école, 75% of workers’ children find themselves at the end of junior school at least one year behind and represent less than 1% of the pupils of these same grandes écoles.

 

Faced with this alarming observation, PPR wanted to become tangibly involved in an initiative aiming to support young people with high potential from underprivileged backgrounds. It would require four years of reflection and preparatory work, in association with the French ministry of education, before the Télémaque Foundation came into being. Under the aegis of the Fondation de France, the Télémaque Foundation was inaugurated on 1^st February 2006 by the minister Gilles de Robien. A global and interactive initiative, it today rests on a mutual, long-term commitment: private companies (PPR, Axa, Schneider, Accor, Kesa, Rexel) undertake to assist, by means of tutoring provided by employees on a voluntary basis, and grant merit scholarships to talented and motivated young school pupils from underprivileged backgrounds, selected and supervised by partner educational institutions up to the end of their schooling.

 

The first school career decisions are made in collège (junior school) and it is here that the first signs of discouragement may appear. The Télémaque Foundation therefore becomes involved at this key moment in a pupil’s educational life to increase the chances of motivated and deserving pupils following a path that reflects their talent and ambition.

 

It relies on French Education boarding schools that are favourable to the initiative. These establishments identify motivated collège pupils who already benefit from a State grant, live in an Educational Priority Area or an underprivileged neighbourhood, and have gained encouraging results at school (a general average of at least 14/20). The establishment draws up dossiers for these potential future merit scholarship students and organises the selection of pupils in partnership with the Foundation. The selection commission is made up of members of the establishment, National Education representatives and permanent members of the Télémaque Foundation.

 

The pupils chosen are thus financially supported and assisted by tutors from collège to the baccalaureate. In exchange, the Télémaque Foundation scholarship pupils undertake to maintain their level of motivation, their will to succeed and school results of a very high level.

 

Once this step has been crossed, it is the turn of the partner companies to come onto the scene. They undertake to provide merit scholarships for the pupils selected and to choose voluntary tutors from among their executive staff to provide the young people with educational support and an insight into the world of work. The role of the tutor is to fire the pupils’ ambitions, give them a wider view and crush social determinism, without for all that taking the place of National Education, the parents or the school. It is their responsibility to contribute to personal growth through extracurricular activities and above all to build a relationship of trust with the pupil, characterised by listening and advice.

 

By virtue of the different partners, the pupil benefits from twofold assistance (or dual tutorship): he is supervised by the company tutor and by a school representative (teacher, boarding school supervisor, senior educational advisor, etc.) who ensures that his studies are going smoothly and supports him in his work and educational choices. It is under the leadership of this dual tutorship that the Télémaque Foundation manages the grant allocated to each pupil selected. The merit scholarship, potentially worth 2,300 euros per year to the end of high school, is intended to cover part of his educational and boarding fees, his transport fees and any extracurricular needs required for educational purposes (linguistic courses, extra tuition) and his personal development (sporting and cultural activities, discovery trips, etc.).

 

The Télémaque Foundation ensures that the structure put in place is operating correctly, overseeing – with the help of a steering committee – relations between pupils, tutors and educational establishments. The families of scholarship students are continually kept informed and are involved in assisting their child by providing him with psychological and emotional support.

 

Six months after the foundation’s inauguration, the initial assessment is positive: 57 pupils have already joined the operation, inviting companies to find tutors for each of them. But, above all, new companies have expressed their wish to join the Télémaque Foundation.

A passion that should make it possible to fulfil the growth targets that the Télémaque Foundation has set for itself: welcoming 100 pupils by the end of 2006, 200 by the end of 2007 and 300 by the end of 2008. All that remains is to recruit just as many tutors and some forty educational establishments in addition to the 12 partners already involved.   

 

In the light of this extremely enthusiastic response from companies and all of the partners, the Télémaque Foundation is looking to strengthen its fundamentals and formalise certain procedures in its initiative. National Education, the institutions, tutors and companies involved in the project were invited to meet together on 10 July last to participate in a day of thinking and proposals regarding the structure. Some 80 people met in 5 workshops to discuss issues such as the missions of the dual tutorship, the pertinence of boarding schools, pupils’ selection, educational path and choices, assessing the Télémaque initiative, and success and excellence. An effective reminder that the Télémaque Foundation has also set itself the task of becoming a forum for reflection and proposals to help to jump-start social mobility…