Do you remember the Institut de Tramayes? Benjamin Destremau, one of the co-founders of this training organization, introduced it to us in this article. To discover the Institute in a different way, we interviewed two mothers of students who had joined Tramayes. Both were looking for meaning, usefulness and rurality, and they seem to have found what they were looking for! The mothers tell their stories...
Emmanuelle and Anne
Emmanuelle is the mother of Solène, 22, who went on a roadtrip for a year after studying to be a nurse. Anne, on the other hand, tells us about her son Barthélémy, 20, who went through a difficult period after dropping out of high school. I heard about the Institut de Tramayes on Facebook. I was looking for training courses and the algorithm brought me to this Institute", explains Anne. As for their professional backgrounds, Emmanuelle first worked in industry, then took a career break to look after her children. She then became a sales representative for a crèche, then a quality manager in the medical-social sector, which she has been doing for 10 years now. Anne was a school nurse for 24 years. She recently left her job to start renovating a château with her husband, turning it into a guest house.
The journey of the two young people
Solène joined the Institut de Tramayes 2 months ago. After studying nursing, which was very theoretical, she had, according to Emmanuelle, "needed to come face to face with people". Her roadtrip, by truck, alone, taught her to fend for herself and enabled her to reconnect with others, notably by asking for their help. Her daughter also needed a change of scenery"we tend to live in the city, and Solène was attracted by the rural environment" says Emmanuelle. For Barthélémy, the experience at Tramayes is more recent, having been there for 3 months. Having dropped out in première, he drowned in terminale and sent his letter of resignation a month before the bac. The following year, a civic service project with Unis Cité helped him get back on track. But it was above all when Anne and her husband embarked on a project to renovate a château into a guest house, that he regained a taste for the meaning of life and work. He took part in helping the workers with the outside landscaping. For Anne, the apprenticeship offered by the Institut de Tramayes seemed to fit her son's profile. And indeed, after they both went to the organization's open house in 2023, the school, as well as the region and the village, appealed to Barthélémy. "Bingo!"
Learning that combines theory and practice
At Tramayes, Solène discovered crafts, learning metalwork and carpentry. During her year there, she even built a chicken coop! At the same time, she studied theoretical courses on economics, sociology and the world of tomorrow, while learning to tackle local projects. Solène has also discovered baking, and will soon be doing an internship in this field. Collective learning is central to the program, and Emmanuelle senses that her daughter is happy with the group in which she is evolving. "These are young people with very different temperaments, but interaction within the group is made fluid by the working and communication methods", she explains.
Life in Tramayes
At the Institut, students are often in shared flats, like Solène,"which also gives you an idea of what life is like in a community" enthuses Emmanuelle. In fact, she went to visit her on site, and spent 2 days in her shared apartment. Anne also went to see her son for 3 weeks, after the start of the school year, with her husband and one of Barthélémy's brothers. They found him "beaming!" Her son, usually shy, is a fish in water in Tramayes: "at the market, the cheese merchant asked Barthélémy what he'd done all week and what he'd learned new...He picked up second-hand furniture via an association, which drove all the way to bring it to him... He doesn't have a car and hitchhikes to get around. "You feel there's a village spirit, where everyone helps each other and the Institute is part of it." Anne is delighted!
"The Institut de Tramayes...is perhaps a response to the problems of certain students who don't recognize themselves in the system;
Their view of their children
A break, a road trip, a fork in the road... Solène's journey doesn't seem to worry Emmanuelle. In fact, she's quite serene and confident that her daughter will find her way. "She's looking for herself, she's in transition, and what's important is the confidence I give my daughter" she says. And then, it has to be said, Emmanuelle, too, has questioned her relationship to work: she's interested, for example, in the Ikigai, that tool that lets you ask yourself questions to find what makes you tick. "I had this deep questioning about my life mission. My parents told me to do what I liked, I went to business school and then, as if on rails, I chose my jobs by feel, by meeting people." "why do we study? What's the point? What's the point?" Over the past 7 years at school, Anne has witnessed on a daily basis a rise in school anxiety among young people. "At first it mainly concerned high school students, now it also concerns middle schoolers and it's reaching primary school." When Anne discovered the Institut de Tramayes, a post-baccalaureate training program where intellectual and manual practices are blended, she thought it might be a response to the problems of certain students, who don't recognize themselves in the system. She is also confronted with this malaise at home, because apart from her pupils, her son Barthélémy is also concerned. His intellectual curiosity is not satisfied at school.
Students' career plans
Before joining Tramayes and even nursing school, Solène had a project in mind: helping mothers with parenting and the mother/child relationship. For Emmanuelle, it's possible that her daughter will follow this path after Tramayes, and there's no doubt that such a need exists in the region. The important thing for her daughter is to be able to link what makes her tick with an activity that will enable her to earn money and live in moderation. Emmanuelle takes up this notion from Ikigaï: "what allows me to feed myself, must feed the world." As for Barthélémy, his mom thinks he wants to become a piano tuner. But she prefers not to get too far ahead of herself, and especially not to interfere in his choices. He'll see.
The question of diplomas
Anne was a little worried at first, though, because her son doesn't have a baccalaureate and the Institut de Tramayes doesn't issue a diploma at the end of the course. For her, there's still that societal and financial recognition that comes through the diploma, "that piece of paper", as Anne describes it. But seeing her son's enthusiasm, she can only accept this choice of career path. Besides, dogs don't make cats,"we're a family where we create a lot of things" says Anne. Indeed, she recently left her job in the education sector to work on renovating a château to turn it into a guest house. What also scared her a little,"was the somewhat baba-cool side of the school". But when she asked questions at the open house, she was quickly reassured"You get the feeling that it's very structured, especially when it comes to finances, running the school... ". It's an Institute that's built on solid foundations and that's reassuring." As for the profile of the other students, they have much the same as Barthélémy's "young people who have studied, but in a circuit, and who wonder what it's all for. Young people who drop out." Emmanuelle, for her part, isn't too worried about her daughter "she's 22 and she'll have her whole life to train. Today she's training in territorial project techniques. And at the Institut de Tramayes, students learn to develop soft skills that are essential in the professional world, such as teamwork, conflict resolution and emotional intelligence. "
After years of working in schools, for Anne,"school is like the journey of an athlete who trains for years just to win a medal at the Olympics. School is brain training, a path of work and learning. It's hard for some young people to understand, because there's nothing concrete about it." Combining theory and practice, understanding local issues and taking part in local projects, the Institut de Tramayes finally responds to these issues, bringing the concrete back into everyday teaching!
To find out more
👉 Here are the training courses at L'Institut de Tramayes