State of affaires

Bonjour mes ami(e)s
Yes, I am still here in the south of France. Nothing much has changed since my last post, but here is a short update.
I am now in my third year working part-time at the local college, helping children with behavioral and /or learning difficulties. The future for the French education system looks pretty grim. Cutbacks, followed by promises of more teaching staff, hints of a chance of permanent contracts for people in precarious posts like mine. The latter is extremely unlikely for all but a few. Tomorrow there is to be a big demonstration in Toulouse. It is clear that something has to be done. Teachers are already stretched and proposed changes to their working hours / conditions will only make an unhappy bunch of people even more unhappy.
Even in the few years that I have worked in primary and secondary education over here, there has been a noticeable deterioration in the behavior of the pupils. Classes with 5 or 6 constantly disruptive pupils now seems to be the norm. The parents of these children say that their kids behave the same way at home "Qu'est-ce qu'on peut faire?" they shrug, their children's behaviour is not their (the parent's) problem. I suppose that it is the same in the UK these days, but I don't know.
The teachers spend a lot of their time trying to keep order and actually teaching anything becomes secondary. Teaching staff are now babysitters!
A fair percentage of the pupils have low literacy and maths levels and lack comprehension skills when they arrive in College at about 11 years of age. Their knowledge of the world, current affairs and history is low, and reading a book is not on their agenda. Concentration is not something that they are familiar with, except when it comes to playing computer games, when an 8 hour concentration span is achievable. Of course they arrive at college exhausted. Obviously not the fault of the parents then.
The jobs situation here in this part of France? Well prospects are almost non-existent unless you work for Airbus at Toulouse. There are no job prospects for youngsters or indeed oldsters here, The outlook is bleak, so why should the kids bother to learn anything. The Government appears to have totally lost the plot and we wait for the latest news of the President's complicate love life.
On the other hand I did have most of today off, the sky was blue and the sun was shining...
"Always look on the bright side of life..." (exit stage left en sifflant)

Back to College

Well, hello again. This is an update on my vie en France.

After 5 months of signing on as unemployed, following the end of my 2 year contract as an EVS administratif  in two primary schools (10 hours per week in each school), I was successful in being successful in getting a one year contract as an AVSco. 

I am currently based in a large College in the departement, working in a class of children who, for various reasons need varying degrees of help to progress with their education and with their integration into "normal" school life. Most of their time is spent in a classroom working through a curriculum consisting of various subjects, e.g. maths, French, history, geography, history etc. There are also lessons with the other pupils in classrooms out with the comfort zone of their own classroom. I either assist the children under the direction of  the professional teacher, or I accompany a child in a classroom of their peers, helping them to keep up with the lesson, writing the information down for them, clarifying what they have to do etc. 

It is very interesting and rewarding work, but very poorly paid. Working 21 hours per week, I now take home about 30 Euros less than I was making last year.

The move from an office in a small primary school to a large college with 1,000 pupils was a culture shock. From not having to speak or listen to much French during my working day, I was having to immerse myself in the French language. Listening to lessons, instructions, communicating with pupils and staff, my brain really did hurt for the first week. There was also the self doubt making things even more stressful and difficult. Then of course there was the size of the college itself, all of the new rules, the new systems and procedures.....

My contract started on the 1^st of September and I have survived thus far.

Like every other facet of French life, the bureaucracy is a real struggle and communication (not due to language difficulties) is often nonexistent or last minute as an afterthought. I am still trying to get the password that I need to log in to the official system to collect emails etc. Obviously as I want to keep my job, I will not go into further details of school life.

So that is where I am at the moment. Apparently these contract can, in principal be for a period of up to a maximum of 6 years. You can be asked to work in any school, college or lycee in the department and your timetable can be changed at very short notice. However, as I said, I am enjoying my new posting and learning a lot at the same time. I am told that my French language is improving, although I am not noticing much of an improvement myself, except for having to learn vocabulary of the college.

A bientot

The two marquises

Nothing much to I have started at my new school and have done 2 stints of 3 hrs 20 mins each time. The little office that I work in is also the head teacher's office. Her admin day is Tuesday, but she was busy elsewhere for most of that afternoon. Unfortunately there is no internet access in the office, although a new pc workstation was installed the morning before I arrived. Hopefully the internet access will not be long, the town hall needs to do a bit of cabling work. The school staff, teachers and ALAE staff all seem pleased to have me there, but as the classrooms are on the first floor and I am on the ground floor next to the school's main doors I am rather out of the way of them and the life of the school, unless the phone rings and I have to go and find the relevant person. It is  going to take me a while to get settled in.
Last Friday one  of Madame's friends friends came to help me install two perspex porches over the two front doors. All was going well, and my side of the porch support for the "marquise" was safely screwed into the wall. Unfortunately things were not going well on the other side of the door, as two of the screws broke off in the wall as he tightened them.
We continued with the marquise over Madame's door, and that was installed without any problems. Of course Madame (who had pestered me for months to buy and install this object) immediately lost interest in the proceedings and had to go and lie down on her canapé. I offered to test the porch by getting her to stand under it whilst I poured a bucket of water out of an upper window onto it, but she declined. So the next morning I was at BricoDepot  to try and buy or blagg replacement screws and raw plugs to restart the failed installation. I was passed from person to person and finally the 4th person indicated which bits and pieces I should buy.
I returned home, Madame phoned her pal, and the bloke returned. Fortunately all went well, but some of the screw covers have disappeared.
Do they stop Madame getting water into her flat when she opens the door when it is raining? I have no idea as it hasn't rained for about 2 weeks now and we have had to put up with temperatures in the 80s. At last summer has arrived!

Schooled

Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from the college that controls my school admin post contract. The lady told me that my contract was now ready to sign and gave me the name of the schools that I will be working at until my contract runs out at the end of March 2012.
I am staying at my current school for 10 of my hours, and the remaining 10 hours in a school in a village which joins on to the outskirts of my town, about 12 - 15 minutes drive away depending on the traffic. I could walk there in about 50 minutes.
So on Monday afternoon I will be going to visit my new school and the directrice, staff, kids etc. This school was built in 1994, so it will make an interesting contrast to the old school buildings where I have spent my time so far.
I am still waiting for confirmation of my 20 or so hours teaching English in a nursing college. I am due to start my first session of the teaching year in about 2 week's time......
So that is the way my working life is shaping up at the moment. Someone has asked me if I will give some English tuition to a lad of 14, who has been doing English for 3 years, but who for some reason during the last year attended hardly any English lessons. I met him briefly.
"What's you name?" I asked. He thought about it for about 30 seconds, during which I repeated the question slowly several times. In the end I had to ask him his name in French.
I then tried "How old are you?" "I'm fine" he eventually replied. The 7 year olds in my school can answer these two questions without any problem. I think that he will need to put in an awful lot of work if he wants to reach the required standard for his year...... I am not sure if I will do it or not.

The clear white light

On Thursday morning I went along to my local College for my reunion. We sat at desks while a man, new in post, introduced himself and then commenced on a history of les handicapes in France and their integration into the national education system, which began in earnest in the 1970's. Then there was a section on what was and what was not the remit of someone assisting a enfant handicapes in the classroom. Fortunately the man spoke clearly so I could understand most of what was said. He was followed by a young lady who was something to do with the Psychologues who spoke very quietly and although I was in the front row, the constant chatting of the two women behind me made following what she said almost impossible.
The meeting finally drew to a close. Did anyone have any questions?
A lady asked, where am I supposed to go now? I do not know what schools I am working in. Lists were consulted. You are working with x at y school, but I don't know yet where else you will be working.
This opened the floodgates. Of the 60 or so staff in the room 70 to 80 % did not know where they were supposed to work. The panelists looked embarrassed and it was suggested that a queue be formed so that the admin staff could consult their lists. The majority of them, me included left the room none the wiser. So I just went to the one school tthat I did know. I am still an admin assistant, not an assistant to one or more enfants handicapes.
When I asked when I might find out where else I was working, the lady smiled and shrugged. It was not for her to say, it was the responsibility of M l'inspecteur....
The following day all the teachers and then the head teachers had an audience with M l'inspecteur.
My head teacher had M L'I on one side and the lady to whom I had posed my question the previous day.
"It is M L'I's" decision she said, "It's not anything to do with me" he said.... 
Personally I think that there might be a slight delay before I find out where my second school is.

Ticking away to the big bang

My 2 month summer holiday is nearly over and on Thursday or Friday I will be going back to school, or rather schools. My directrice telephoned me this morning at 9.30am. She phoned the College at 9am and was lucky enough to have the phone answered.
She has found out that 10 of my admin assistant hours will be spent at her school until my contract ends 31 march 2011. My directrice told the lady about the letter that I had received from the college, inviting me to attend a meeting at the College on Thursday morning.
"Why did they send him that letter? This meeting doesn't concern him. But as he has received the letter, he had better attend."
So I am teed up to look a complete plonker on Thursday. My directrice asked which school I would be spending my other 10 hours in. However the Inspectors have not yet decided. Still 2 days is plenty of time, if they send out a letter first class today or tomorrow......
The weather has been good for the last few days, but rain clouds are on the horizon.
The town's annual fete starts on Friday evening with live music and of course the highlight of the year, the 17 minute firework display which is due to kick off at 20:30. and which is well worth coming to see.
I expect that all 4 of my  readers will be dropping in to visit me for the weekend.  Don't forget that the fig festival is on the first weekend in October in a town only 20 minutes away.
A bientot alors.

Out to lunch

Yesterday I went out to lunch with the head teacher, maternelle teacher and one of the school's EVS helpers. They all drove into town (market day so parking is scarce) but I walked in to meet them. Of course just before I set off it started raining. The French weather, like elsewhere in the world has been all over the place. The wettest July since records began and not much improvement in August, except that last weekend we had a canicule (heatwave) over most of France.
The temperaratures soared up to 40 degrees C, with only a small reduction during the night. I don't have air conditioning, except for the draught that prevail during the winter months. I did buy a fan on a stand 2 years ago, so after more than a year of being redundant, it was put into service for a few nights.
Back to the present, and the promised sunshine shyly peeks out from behind the mass of grey cloud after a night of heavy rain.
Back to lunch. We went to the town's Leo Legrange centre, where the choir usually have their practice days. I had chicken paella (very small portion with a rather dried out piece of chicken carcass on top) while the others had steak frites (steak and chips), so not very adventurous. In fact I find that the French are not very adventurous when it comes to food. For example they don't seem to like curries, mexican food, traditional chip shop fish and chips........  Normally steak frites is a small piece of very chewy meat with hard, stick thin chips. Of course this time the steak was big, the chips fresh and chunky and it came with salad.
During the meal the head teacher said that she doesn't think that I will be returning to her school, and that it is possible that I will be assigned to a pupil with some kind of disability in one of the schools. She said that she will do some phoning around on Monday to see if she can find out anything for me.
There is a meeting for all EVS on Thursday to which I have received an invitation to attend so I may have to wait until then to find out my fate.

Manifestation – even Rigsby is revolting

It has been a difficult year for the French Government and for Mr Sarkozy in particular. The latest news is that he wanted small in stature body guards for a foreign visit to India and this bears out once again the fact that he is very conscious of his small stature. If he had lived even 50 years ago he would have been above the average height of 5 ft 3 inches, but now his 5 ft 5 inch height (1 inch shorter than Napoleon) leaves him 2 inches below average. This really should not matter as everyone knows that performance is more important than size.
The government’s performance regarding the primary education system has always been controversial. A few years ago the school week was reduced from 4 and a half days, to 4 days. This has lead to increasing discontent as the long school days are tiring the children out, and their performance is suffering as a result.
The schools appoint people to accompany children with disabilities during 20 (I believe) of their hours at school. These contracts used to be for 6 years, now the maximum contract is for 2 years, divided into parcels of 6 months, 9 months, and then a final 9 months. There is no job security and you can be made redundant at the end of any parcel of months.
There are also people like me as admin support, on similar contracts. The government decided to cut the admin posts and many disability support posts to save money.
Fortunately in my department they did not cancel any contracts, they just didn’t replace anyone whose contract had reached the end of their 6 or 2 year term.
The EVS, AVS and Directors/ Directrices of the region were invited to a meeting to discuss the situation, so you might expect that at least 180 people might turn up.
I was one of 19 people who attended. Of those at least 6 were Syndicat (union) officials. One was a directrice, and the rest were people coming to the end of a 6 year contract.
Part having your contract renewed (of course filling in forms, signing multiple copies of renewed contract in advance) is having taken part in training and having some kind of project. This is difficult for an admin assistant. It’s okay if you don’t know how to use a computer, there are courses. It seems that most of the courses on offer are deleted or cancelled, so it is difficult to meet any training requirement.
Even better is that no travelling expenses are paid to attend the training.
People complained about the chaos of their management and the rudeness of the staff managing their contracts.
The next part of the morning was a “march” to the Prefecture. People drifted off and only about 10 of us remained. We set off, impeding the traffic in the narrow streets. We then stood on the pavement and in the road outside the prefecture, while reporters poked their micros at the various union officials, someone took some video footage and two reporters took some photos. Our numbers had swelled again counting the 7 reporters, we must have been around 20 or so. I thought that we had demanded an audience with some educational bigwig, but after 30 minutes of standing around, I followed the example of several others and drifted off into the sunshine. Here is a link to the Depeche article with a photo containing Rigsby himself. If you click on the photo it will enlarge to see me better.


Getting back to the president, described in a recent Wiki leak as “thin skinned and authoritarian personal style” and “an emperor with no clothes” he does himself no favours by allegedly appearing drunk at a television conference during the recent G8 summit.

I think that he is just a bit out of breath myself.

The last dejeunner

On the last day of term, the canteen children all had a picnique lunch somewhere, while the teachers, assistants and the neighbours across from the school all brought in food / drink etc for a 2 hour lunch in the neighbour’s garden. It was my job to supply the cheese, so I explained my mission to the lady behind the deli counter and she sold me a selection of cheeses to take to the meal.

The meal was in a proper French garden in the welcome shade of trees. Any meal which starts with real champagne and a selection of really smooth wines is going to be a success isn’t it.

I don’t think that you would find this happening in the UK, but feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

I don’t think that I get paid for the 2 months, but I might get some accrued holiday pay. I am finding it difficult to adjust to not having to get up for school. I never thought I would say it, but I can’t wait to get back to school.....

Here is a mural done at the school, mostly by their teacher, but her class filled in the colours. I think that it was a project funded by the mairie.

*stop press! I just received my bank statement and I have a full months pay sitting in my account.. Hooray!

 
 
 
 
 

Have you heard the news?

On Monday I saw the head teacher of the first school again. I gave her a copy of the letter that I had written (edited by M from my French family), that I had emailed to the Inspection Academique, quitting my job as a teacher of English in primary schools.

She told me that she had phoned someone who had told her that it was possible for me to hold the two jobs at the same time. I explained that as my working day started at 9am it would be physically impossible for me to fit the hours into the week. (The primary schools are closed all day Wednesday).


The next Headmistress was not happy at all. Being a bit sensitive, a bit psychic I pick up on such things.


That and the fact that she was turning crimson and shouting “But what am I going to do!, what am I going to do?”


She decided that she was going to telephone Someone. She wanted me to take the class right now (10 minutes early).


CM2 were as wearyingly, strength-sappingly misbehaved as per usual. I struggled onwards. This would be their last lesson with me. Yes!


Ten minutes after the official end of the class, the headmistress re-appeared.


She stomped off to the back of the class and sat down looking furious.


I finished off what I was trying to do, and the children soon forgot she was there and carried on as per usual.


I finished up. The head teacher remained seated and barked out “So this is your last English lesson here”


“Yes” I replied, keeping all trace of glee out of my voice and looking mournful.


“But if you stop teaching, I will not be able to cover for the teacher who teaches Spanish, so there will not be any Spanish lessons either” “What is going to happen?”


There are some conversations which it is redundant to get involved in. A younger me would probably have crumbled and found some way of continuing, but as the lessons had been legalised teacher abuse I had no incentive so to do.


The fact that she should have been in the classroom with me throughout the lessons was another issue, especially as they are such a difficult class to manage.


I said “Goodbye” to the children and headed off to teach my 7 year olds for the 25 minutes that remained of their lesson time.


As I walked off down the corridor, I could hear the head teacher screaming (yet again) at the class regarding their abominable behaviour.


My last lesson at the other school was the following morning. The children seemed to enjoy themselves and we ended up with Simon Says. Then the lunchtime bell rang. The teacher explained that this was their last lesson with me, because I was going to work at another school.


Some of the boys came up to me and solemnly shook my hand. Two of the girls put their arms round my legs.


Then it was time to hit the road. Ouch! Now what did I do that for?

We don’t need no education?

C agreed that it seemed as though they were offering me a job, but not as a disability assistant, but as an admin assistant in a school. No other details such as number of hours etc

I said that I would maybe trot along to see the lady on Tuesday next week, but C said that the school staff would be on duty until 5pm, so I could go along now to find out what was what. “Otherwise you will be wondering all weekend” she said.


Reluctantly I went home, changed my clothes and walked to the Lycee about 20 minutes away.


I was given directions to the office of Vie Scolaire (School life).


I ended up in the office of the lady who had phoned me and she completed some kind of application form on my behalf, me supplying the information.


Did I have a RIB (bank details slip) and my carte d’identite?


I said that I hadn’t, but that I could email copies to her.


I then signed 3 copies of a contract “lu et approuve”


I now have to wait until I hear from her that the paperwork is all in order and has been completed before I do anything. I can phone the head teacher of the primary school, located about 15km away from home, to let him know that I have been appointed. (I’m sure that he will be delighted to had an Englishman for his / her admin assistant).


The post is for 6 months, renewable in blocks of 6 months up to a total of 2 years. It starts on the 1st April and is for 20 hours per week. This means that I should get the social/ medical cover that I am lacking at the moment. Holidays are unpaid and it is probably minimum wage at 8 .?? euros per hour, “but it’s a paycheck Jack”


The problem is that I don’t know my timetable and it may not be possible to continue teaching my 3 current primary classes nor the student nurses.


So some people are not going to be happy with me at all.....

Up the pole

A week later and it was my time of the month to see my unemployment advisor. We had our usual discussion and I explained that I had had an interview the previous week.

He disappeared and made a phone call. Ten minutes later he returned. The panel had decided upon the town post, but had not made any decisions yet about the other posts available.


We continued our chat, and I explained about my lack of medical / social charge cover. I also said that the only solution that I could think of, other than paying loadsa medical insurance money, was to become set myself up as an autoentreprenneur.


He disappeared again, reappearing another 10 minutes later with a phone number of an organisation to contact. They would have a chat with me about my business idea and if they thought that it was a goer, there would be training available and help with the various steps of setting up a business, e.g. publicity materials etc.


He typed up my progress report and said that he would not make an appointment for a next meeting. After I had met with the business people, I could contact him to keep him up to date with my progress.


So, cast adrift once more, I wended my weary way homeward.


I was mid siesta at 1.30 pm when a trumpet fanfare dragged me from the land of nod. It was a few seconds before I realised that it was my mobile phone, which of course I had left in the other room.


I staggered from the bedroom, picked it up and said hello. The line went dead, so I went back to bed.


The phone beeped. I had a message. So I tapped in 123 and waited for the voice to tell me that I had a message on my repondeur and that I had to tapper 1 to listen to it.


This I duly did, but as usual the voice spoke very quickly. The lady was obviously making the call while eating her lunch. I decided that it was too difficult.


Quarter of an hour later, I listened to the message another 4 times, trying to make out what it was all about. French people always assume that you know who is calling and why, so it’s not so much what they say, but what they don’t day that is the important bit.


It seemed to be about the interviews the previous week, but none of the words rang any useful bells. However the lady had left her phone number and said that I should contact her as soon as possible.


I phoned up C from my French family and took my mobile round for her to listen to, and see if she could pick up anything that I had missed.

We don't need no education

24 November 2009

Still busy. Apart from a week of rain, the weather has been almost summery.
I can’t remember what I have written in the past about my quest for employment, but here’s the thing.
About 2 months ago, Mr Gay, my polemploi (job centre advice type thingy) suggested that I visit the Inspection Academique building to see if they required anyone to teach English in the local primary schools.
The next day, armed only with a CV, I climbed as directed, to the second floor and entered the room that I had been pointed towards.
I asked the lady behind the desk if it was her that recruited people to teach English in Primary schools?
No it wasn’t her, but the lady who sat across the room from her might be the one, she wasn’t sure. I left my CV on the empty desk, and wended my way home.
Three weeks later I got a cryptic email from an unknown person, with no official tag, to say who she was and who she worked for.
Someone would be in touch to arrange a date for a habilitation.
I looked up habilitation in the dictionary. A few days later, I got another email suggesting a date for this exam. Two ladies would be taking me for the test.
There were numerous attachments to help me prepare for my exam.
The pages and pages of official viewpoint on how English should be taught to primary school pupils, the pages of content which should be covered for each of the years in Cycle 3 were listed etc etc. Unfortunately it was all in French.
I searched the Internet a bit, and found a mention of it in an Englishwoman’s blog. The exam would last half an hour. You would listen to a taped item (in English) and be asked to paraphrase the content, answer questions posed by the panel. Read something in English, Write something in English, and finally, discuss the official viewpoint on how English should be taught. This was going to be the tricky bit, but it should only last 10 minutes, and the bloggee had not been asked much and the panel had let her do most of her talking in English.
So, no worries.
I arrive at a local lycee and meet the two French / English teachers.
Listen to tape of someone talking about how the Japanese cannot cope with having holidays. – No problem.
Read some pages from “Winnie the witch” – no problem, although they did not enter into the spirit of things and tell me what colour the dog was etc etc.
The next bit was skipped over, and it was time for the official questions. I should be out in record time, I thought.
Wrong!
I was grilled for about 40 minutes on this 10 minute tops, section. They were being thorough.
They decided that I had passed phase one and that I could now be designated as having gained my “Habilitation provisoire”. That means that I have a standard of English which permits me to teach primary school children. Part two, to gain the full habilitation will probably happen next year. Someone will come and observe me teaching a class. If I fail they will make comments and arrange another observation.
Anyway, I returned to the Inspection Academique and filled in paperwork, supplied copies of various official documents and my bank details.
On the ninth of November, after the Toussaint holidays, I began working in two primary schools in the next town which is about a 25 minute drive away.
Monday I leave the house at around 10 for my first lesson at 11am. At 11.45 the CE1 lesson finishes, school closes for 2 and a quarter hours for lunch.
At 2.15 my next class CM2, begins. They are unruly little boys and girls aged between 10 and 11. No wonder so many teachers move about the world like zombies. My next class is CP/CE1. They are probably about 7 years old and there are only 6 of them. The problem here is that the head teacher whose class I “teach” for the previous ¾ hour, always returns to class late, once half an hour late, so the little ones don’t have much lesson time. They are bright as buttons though. Unfortunately they go swimming on Tuesday afternoons, so their scheduled Tuesday English lesson will not commence until next year.
None of the classes have had an English lesson this school year, prior to me starting on 9 Nov. The CP and the CE1 class did no English last year. The CM2’s don’t seem to have picked up much English. I know they had some teaching last year, but their workbook covers only days of the week, months of the year, seasons, some numbers, some body parts, and a family tree.
They are supposed to reach A1 standard ready to start the Lycee 6th form next year. I am discovering that they don’t know much, if any of the oral English that they will be assumed to have, ready for the big school. The majority are not keen to do any work at all, which is a shame for the few that are trying. I continue to mix up the lessons to make it as varied as possible but at the moment it is the French Resistance all over again. They may soon turn up to school in berets and long overcoats. On verra.
I think that the teacher is supposed to stay in the class and participate. CE1’s teacher does. The teenies are no trouble, but the 11 year olds are a different kettle of poisson.
The schools appear to have no English resources so it is costing me a fortune (in both time and money) buying teacher manuals, printing off things, making up example,/ picture / song sheets etc and that’s not to mention the sleep deprivation.
Anyway, I hope to find out what my job title is and what the rate of pay is soon. I got a phone call from the Inspection Academique this morning to say that a contract was in the post, could I sign it and return it please, as without this being done, I cannot be paid.


Whar the hell has happened to the Blogger software?????

What’s in a name?

At my last meeting with my work mobilisation advisor she decided that I should concentrate on tourism. My homework before the next meeting is to go to the employment and solidarity education centre to chat to a lady about my burning desire to become a tourism technician. It is possible that the French state would pay for me to go to Carcassonne to study for 7 months to get the qualification necessary to apply for jobs in this seasonal tourism sector. Bed and board would be paid for and I would return home at weekends. There are other locations for the training throughout France, but Carcassonne is the nearest. I think that work placement is part of it too, so perhaps I would not be home for weekends. There is usually a waiting list to go on these courses so if I was lucky enough to convince the lady that this is where I really want to work, then I might get on a course later in the year.
Unlike the UK where there is probably one category of tourism worker, in France there are about 14 or so, all minutely different and requiring a specific qualification to be eligible to apply for suitable posts which come up.
Not that there are many posts in this part of France. I would probably have to travel afar to find work.
The next person that I have to see is the Head of Tourism for the Ariege, based in the Town Hall. I have to find out what planned direction, if any, tourism is to take in the Midi Pyrenees, where the work is etc.
I also have to go to the big secondary school and speak to one of the teachers / lecturers who provide the tourism course there. I have to find out from them where the best locations to find tourism jobs in France are.
Disneyland probably has their own training school, so there is not much chance of Mickey Mouse tapping you on the shoulder and it being me.
Before I start harassing the above people, I have 17 pages of text to read about this role of “Technicien d’accueil touristique option accompagnement” entails so that I can prepare my sales pitch to try to get onto a course. The speaking 3 languages requirement will be an issue…..