The French Team
Mireille Rioual
Head of unit Agricultral sector
Nantes Terre Atlantique
I work for Nantes Terre Atlantique in France where I am a teacher in an apprenticeship training centre and responsible for the agricultural sector. I live in the countryside and love to take care of my garden and produce my own vegetables.
In my opinion, pedagogical collaboration is important because my apprentices do not like school. As a teacher we must make them feel that the school and the company are working together, that the instructions are consistent and go in the same direction.
I believe teachers and mentors must be seen by the learner as peers, even if the time in the company goes faster than in school where you have to take the time to reflect, explain, analyze and step back.
Working with the project partners has allowed me to open my vision of cooperation between the school and the company. The examples of cooperation encountered in the different countries were all discoveries that prompted me to identify possible transfers, but also to identify what is already practiced and which must be developed.
VET@work has showed me examples of cooperation that work, it gives ideas to say: “I can try!” It has also proven the proverb “Alone, I go faster, together, we go further” correct!
I’m a teacher in gardening and landscaping in an apprenticeship centre. I’m also the responsible for the gardening sector. Before becoming a teacher I was a landscape architect. I live near NANTES and I particularly like to travel and to visit gardens, castle, museum, exhibitions. I also like working independently. I have worked in NTA since May 2001 and I have been involved in Europeans programs like WORQUAL and APPMENTOR.
Nantes Terre Atlantique is a public VET school located near Nantes in West of France, we provide training in agricultural, horticulture, landscape and food processing sectors.
It is the biggest agricultural public high school in Loire Altantique with a secondary school, a vocational high school (LYCEE DU GRAND BLOTTEREAU) an apprentices learning center (CFA JULES RIEFFEL), an adults training centre (CFPPA JULES RIEFFEL). There are about 800 students studying in NTA. We have apprentices essentially in gardening but also in food processing and agriculture, many of them like hand working and learning by making something. It’s very important for the school to be in a close relationship with the companies to prepare young learners for an active life. We are not only teachers; we are more education trainers and we work with mentors to progress step by step towards the same goal.
The project VET@work allowed me to broaden my knowledge of different types of collaboration between schools and companies. In Europe, visiting different companies, we have discovered different practices, and those experiences could open up new perspectives in the way to collaborate with our own companies.
Experiences in Europe confirm that to develop the relationship between school and companies is the better way for young learners to succeed in their introduction to the working life.
Yveline Beraud
Head of unit Horticultural sector
Nantes Terre Atlantique
