France Seconde Vocational track — seconde families of trades
Chapters: 2
1. Families of trades (2de pro)
Sustainable construction and public works · Administration, transport and logistics · Customer relations · Aeronautics · Graphic industries and communication · Hospitality and catering · Building studies and digital modelling · Beauty and well-being · Mechanical and industrial manufacturing · Digital and energy transitions · Vehicle and equipment maintenance · Automated installations · Fitting, joinery and furniture · Food trades
- Building Trades: Who Builds a House and How, Step by Step – A building is made by many trades in a set order. A surveyor marks the plot; public-works crews lay roads and pipes; masons build the walls; carpenters make the roof frame; roofers cover it; joiners fit windows and doors; fit-out and metalwork trades finish the inside. Studies and drawings (architecture, costs, digital models) come before all of them.
- Business Trades: Office, Logistics and Customer Care – Every sale needs three kinds of workers. Customer-relations staff meet people at the counter or front desk. Administrative staff keep the papers, bills and records. Logistics and transport staff store, pack and move the goods. They pass one order along like a relay, so each must do the job well and tell the next person what is needed.
- Engineering Trades: Who Builds and Fixes Our Machines – Many jobs build, install and repair machines. They fall into five families: aircraft, mechanical and industrial manufacturing, digital and energy, vehicle and equipment maintenance, and automated installations. Each family has its own tools, safety rules and careers.
- Printing Technology: Paper Sizes, Type, Inks and Layout – Printing follows standards so that every machine and every printer can work together. Paper comes in the A-series (ISO 216): each size is half of the one before and keeps the same 1 : 1.414 shape. Text is set in typefaces (serif or sans) measured in points. A page is planned with margins, columns and a grid. A print job starts with a job sheet, checks the materials, and uses a substrate (paper), a plate, inks (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) and finishing such as cutting, folding and binding.
- Hospitality Services: How Hotels and Restaurants Create Value – Hospitality means welcoming guests and meeting their needs for food, drink and rest. A service is made at the moment the guest, the staff and the physical setting meet: this is the servuction system. Guests differ (leisure, business, groups, guests with disabilities) and can be served in different styles (table, buffet, counter, room service). Staff work in teams with a clear hierarchy (restaurant and kitchen brigades, front desk, housekeeping) and pass information through documents. Quality has four faces: expected, designed, delivered and perceived; any gap between them leads to complaints.
- Hairstyling and Aesthetics: The Science, Art and Business of the Salon – Hairstyling and aesthetics is the care and styling of hair, skin and nails. You need science (hair structure, pH, chemicals and allergies), art (design principles, colour theory, trends and make-up) and people skills (consultation, record keeping, teamwork, advertising and safe, accurate measuring).
- Food Science: The Chemistry of What We Eat – Food science studies what food is made of and how it changes from farm to plate. Food contains carbohydrates, proteins, fats, water, vitamins and minerals. Cooking changes them: heat unfolds proteins (denaturation), starch swells in water (gelatinisation), and dry heat browns food through the Maillard reaction and caramelisation. Microbes ferment food into bread, curd and pickles, but can also spoil it. Processing, preservation and safe temperatures keep food safe and nutritious for a growing world population.
2. General subjects in the vocational track
General subjects · Co-teaching and the “chef-d’œuvre” project
- General Subjects in a Vocational Course and Your Project – A vocational course teaches a trade, but also general subjects: home language and history-geography, maths and science, a foreign language, art and sport, health and safety, and economics and law. Teachers of the trade and of a subject sometimes teach together (co-teaching). In the end the student plans, makes and presents a masterpiece project that shows both skills and knowledge.