Two boys, two girls. Smiles, fluorescent lighting, hashtags and video sketches that really pop. With the “Shape Your Future” operation, resolutely calibrated for an audience born after 2000, the education ministry is setting itself the ambition of “reaching young people where they are.”
And where are they? For the ministry, it’s online: the vast campaign promoting vocational training is being rolled out on as well as on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok.
The public launch will take place from 27 to 30 April, as part of the YEP-Schoulfoire at Luxexpo The Box. The move is intended to be a further offensive by the government in the
“AI-proof”
“Today there are an infinite number of opportunities for young people, not all of whom immediately know how to make the right choices,” said (DP) on 22 April 2025 at the presentation of the scheme, flanked by apprentices Siri (cook) and Marcel (car mechanic), two of the four “Shape Your Future” ambassadors, whose smiles can be seen on the visuals. “That’s why we need to help them find their way and fulfil their potential. There is a wide variety of training courses, and all of them offer good prospects. Everything that young people learn in vocational training is, in a way, ‘AI-proof’ because there will always be a need for practical jobs in the trades or in industry. We’ll always need mechanics, logisticians and cooks.”
“The main message is: vocational training can take you where you want to go,” he continued, in explanation of why the education ministry intends to offer a “one-stop shop” for vocational training, bringing together under one roof the various initiatives run by the Chamber of Employees (CSL), the Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Trades and the Chamber of Agriculture.
Take the test
To find your way around the thicket of 120 training courses available in the country, you can take a test. On it: your personality, interests and aspirations.
Your test results will throw out one of eight different hashtags: #Taste, #Build, #Plant, #Style, #Manage, #Control, #CareFor and #Craft.
Minister Claude Meisch alongside Marcel and and Siri, two of the four apprentices lending their faces (and experience) to the “Shape Your Future” campaign. Photo: Menej
The video modules accompanying the test have been produced, it is promised, “without actors or the use of AI.” Instead it’s Siri, Marcel and their companions who will guide you towards the job that’s right for you. “Through this campaign, we’re highlighting the many opportunities that exist through testimonials from apprentices,” said CSL director .
Companies as stakeholders
Training is “not just a commitment in the present, but a lasting investment by both the learner and the training company,” said , director general of the Chamber of Commerce.
The campaign is scheduled to run for at least a year. “In a second phase, portraits of training companies will be produced to highlight the advantages of training apprentices in one’s company, particularly in terms of recruitment once the training is completed,” according to the education ministry.
“A prestigious route”
By the end of the 2023-2024 school year, some 86% of the 1,800 registered candidates had obtained their technician diploma (DT), vocational aptitude diploma (DAP) or vocational capacity certificate (CCP).
Currently, more than 6,250 students are undergoing initial training in the country. For the DT, the most popular courses are for future technicians in administration and commerce, IT, civil engineering, smart technologies and general mechanics. For the DAP, it’s courses for socio-educational agents, administrative and commercial agents, care assistants, sales advisors and car and motorbike mechanics. For the CCP, it’s sales clerks, daily support assistants, cooks, hairdressers and painter-decorators.
“Vocational training is the way of the future,” said Meisch. “The ministry’s mission is to promote it, to show the diversity of careers and to make as many young people as possible understand that they can find their passion, their vocation. We want to help them make a choice that suits them, individually, and that gives them a place in society. And in the years to come, we’re going to continue to raise the profile of vocational training, to make it as prestigious a route as any other.”
This article in French.