FIND A JOB AND A FUTURE IN BRITAIN, FRENCH TOLD

Vladimir Cordier, 30, an economics graduate, abandoned his native Normandy eight years ago for London after refusing to settle for what he saw as a hopeless future in France.

After finding work in a call centre, he changed jobs several times and now earns between £40,000 and £50,000 a year as a project manager with a firm providing technological services to lawyers.

His self-published book, Enfin un Boulot! (At last a job), advises young compatriots how to join the flood of French who have turned their backs on a stifling employment market at home in favour of "le modèle Anglo-Saxon".

FRENCH EMPLOYMENT PLAN B: "BRITAIN"
The Employment Line Starts To The West

"No French government wants to be honest with the people," Mr Cordier said. ... "We cannot go on believing we can afford the social system we have, keeping people in universities until they leave with skills that are useless to the world outside."

Mr Cordier, from Rouen, decided to leave France after hearing a professor tell students to continue studying as long as possible because "there is no work for you".

"I was gobsmacked," he said. "After all that studying, he thought the best I could hope for was to end up as a cashier at the hypermarket, doing a job for which you needed no more than the GCSE equivalent.*"

This is all a little deja-vooey here at Pave.

He said he was fed up with hearing the French moan about British "invaders" forcing up house prices. He said: "There are 174,000 Britons who live permanently in France - but 300,000 French people who have moved to the United Kingdom."

Ah, please take note, Mdm. Poirire.

Mr. Cordier's book can be ordered at its linked title above. An English version will be available at the end of this year.

* The British General Certificate of Secondary Education is issued upon passing a set of qualifying exams. The GCSE exams are anterior to the GCE A-Level exams, the A-Level being roughly equivalent to the French bac and the American SAT exams. For our American skimmers, Mr. Cordier is saying his university studies would do him no better in France than a job requiring a junior high school education.

PFFT (What is this?): French success story 4 | Rayonnement français 3

Wooo! Wonderful blog! ; )