General presentation of our school

Pontarcher Vocational School is a school for students aged 15-18, which provides technical and professional training in the hotel and service sectors. We are located in Vesoul, a town in an Eastern region of France called Franche-Comté.

At Pontarcher we are committed to helping students break through the social and cultural barriers in oerder to pass the Bac. We work hard to help individuals turn dreams into achievable goals through accessible and high quality learning opportunities.

We have highly professional teaching and support staff, with high expectations for our students. We are committed to support and challenge our pupils to succeed in learning and to develop as confident young citizens.

Along with their vocational subjects, our students also study general subjects which include modern foreign languages. Every student is required to study one language, but most are required to study two. Students have the choice between English, Spanish, and German.To broaden our students’ horizons, each of them has the opportunity to apply for a work placement abroad .Our school ,awarded with the EUROSCOL Label (which brings recognition to schools that give a european dimension to their educational project) ,offers two European Classes in Hospitality & Catering and Reception (front desk activities).

Departments

There are around 500 students at Lycée Pontarcher studying for their Baccalauréat Professionnel (the vocational school leaving certificate in France) across seven different subject streams :

Hospitality & Catering – Cooking
Hospitality & Catering – Service
Management & Administration
Sales
Business & Commerce
Reception Services
Health & Social Care

Qualifications

Bacalaureat professionnel (Vocational School leaving Certificate)
After leaving the collège (secondary school) the French students are invited to follow main stream studies in High Schools or choose to learn a job. They are then directed to vocational schools like ours. They enroll in a particular fields ( see above) and study for 3 years to get their Vocational School leaving Certificate completing two periods of work experiences each year.
BTS
After obtaining the Baccalaureat students have the option to remain at Lycee Pontarcher for further studies in Hospitality and Catering Management. This two-year long programme results in the Brevet de Technicien Superieur (BTS) and can be studied either as a paid apprentice (completing alternating periods of work and study throughout the programme) or a student (completing a period of work experience at the end of each year).

Facilities

Our students may come from all over the region and many stay in the on-site boarding facilities during the week.

Lycée Pontarcher benefits from a modern and spacious hospitality and catering building constructed in 2010. This development includes two silver-service restaurants open to the public and run by our Hospitality & Catering students. These provide high-standard dining experiences at a much-reduced cost.

International mobility

Lycée Professional Pontarcher is a member of the Bourgogne/Franche-Comté Erasmus consortium and is involved in a number of international projects :

We send students abroad*
We received foreign students**
We send staff members abroad
We received staff members

**We have a partnership with Paulsteinerberufschule in Bad-Uberkingen in Bad-Wurtemberg, Germany.

*We send a increasing number of students from our two Hospitality & Catering classes each year on work placement abroad to English speaking hotels and restaurants in Cyprus.

We are willing to increase our partnerships and send more and more students and staff members abroad, we are definately convinced that we need to broaden our horizons. As a small school we can offer « homemade » personalised exchanges to our partner’s students.

These international work placements are fantastic opportunities for our students . Beside improving their practice of foreign languages in a real working environment, these living experiences abroad give the young people not only an occasion to cope with new working practices and organisations but also a chance to get more autonomy and self confidence. As well, they feel more open-minded and responsible, that is why such experiences abroad are a real asset for their CV, increasing their chance to be employed and get interesting and evolving work positions.