At the European level, attractiveness of the teaching profession is a recurrent political concern, reflected in the work of the OECD (2018) and the European Commission (2013). These comparative studies report both concerns about the shortage of teachers - whether this is generalised or limited to regions or disciplines - and about the qualifications, or skills, of candidates - whether these concern the training provided or the 'quality thresholds' for recruitment. The question of the quality of recruitment pools is a pressing one and the observation that countries do not equally attract the best students to teaching appears to be shared (Park and Byun 2015; Tatto et al. 2012).

International comparisons show the diversity of measures implemented to deal with the problem of the attractiveness of teaching jobs. Some measures put in place in countries not facing recruitment problems are highlighted by the European Commission (2013). In this respect, training support for career development (Singapore), start-of-career bonuses (England, Wales), longer initial training (Ireland), high academic standards (Finland), or information on the teaching profession during compulsory and tertiary education (Estonia), may be seen as efficient measures in order to gain more applicants.

In France, the lack of teaching candidates is particularly acute in some secondary education subjects, or in some regions for primary education (Périer 2016). Since the late 2000s, measures have been implemented to address the problem. Among them, we can mention the extension of the level of education required (Master’s degree) in 2008, the reform of the initial training of teachers and the creation of new permanent job positions in 2012. From 2013 onwards, pre-professionalisation measures have also been put in place to help undergraduate students prepare for entry into the teaching profession. These pre-professionalisation measures are intended to enable students to work as teachers at an early stage and to receive a related income. In so doing, they aim at promoting access to the profession for teachers from modest social backgrounds, a recommendation which is included in the European Commission's report (2013): "scholarships and/or pre-recruitment mechanisms should be adopted to reduce the risk that good students from disadvantaged social backgrounds are discouraged by the cost of studying for a Master's degree" (p. 72). 

In 2019, a new pre-professionalisation scheme, ‘AED Prépro’, has been launched. Dedicated to undergraduate students from the 2^nd year of university, the aim of this scheme is to enable gradual integration into the teaching profession, through the acquisition of professional skills linked to practical experience (6 to 8 hours per week in a classroom, with increasing responsibility), while ensuring academic success since a Master’s degree is required to teach permanently. Students receiving a study-grant based on social criteria are the target audience for this scheme, although it is also open to non-scholarship holders. In so doing, the 'AED Prépro' scheme aims to promote access to teaching positions for students from modest social backgrounds. The beneficiaries commit themselves to a three-year contract and receive a monthly salary, that can be combined with a study-grant.

To what extent does the ‘AED Prépro’ scheme succeed in meeting the triple objective of attracting more applicants to teaching, securing the attainment of a Master’s degree while democratising access to the teaching profession? 

As part of a research project on the academic success and professional projects of undergraduate students disseminated in thirteen universities in France, this paper proposes to examine the social and academic paths of undergraduate students, in order to compare 'AED Prépro' students with other students who may or may not wish to go into teaching. Our contribution is part of a mixed-methods and longitudinal approach. The quantitative component is based on an initial questionnaire survey - distributed between April and July 2021 - of second and third-year students in several fields of study, followed by a second questionnaire survey of students who have declared an interest in teaching - distributed one year later, between April and June 2022. During the first phase of the survey, more than 1,700 students - including 180 students on 'AED Prépro' contracts - responded to the questionnaire, 35% of whom declared an interest in teaching. The qualitative component consists first in interviewing ‘AED Prépro’ students (30 interviews) in order to understand their motivations, trajectories and study conditions. These students will be re-interviewed in 2022 to find out how their academic career has developed and how their professional plans have evolved. Second, institutional actors involved in the policy-making and the implementation of the scheme at the local level have been interviewed (7 interviews at the beginning of our investigation). Our research design has been conducted through the implementation of a sequential exploratory mixed-methods approach, where the qualitative component precedes the quantitative element (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 2003). This design is ideal for the exploration of a new scheme. The first exploratory interviews with ‘AED Prépro’ students and institutional actors have enabled us to better construct our questionnaire. Indeed, it was necessary to have a detailed knowledge of how the ‘AED Prépro’ scheme had been implemented from an institutional point of view, as well as initial feedbacks from students. However, qualitative research will also have an explanatory role. Indeed, our second wave of interviews with ‘AED Prépro’ students will allow us to better understand our statistical results. For example, students with the highest grants, i.e. those in the most precarious economic situation, seem to be less likely to benefit from the pre-professionalisation program, even though they perform well academically: can this be interpreted as self-censorship? Or do they apply for the program without getting a positive response?

Our initial analyses of descriptive statistics show that the goal of democratisation seems to have been achieved, at least partly. Indeed, we have found that students benefiting from a study grant are over-represented among the ‘AED Prépro’ students, and that the latter benefit from a greater financial autonomy than other students. The ‘AED Prépro’ students are also successful at university. Moreover, these students declare a high level of satisfaction of the ‘AED Prépro’ scheme, they consider that they are becoming more professional, without the time spent in the schools hindering their success in their degree course. Thus, at this exploratory stage of our analysis, the ‘AED-prépro’ scheme appears to be rather effective. We will also present the results of statistical modeling. The interest is to highlight the factors influencing the probability of benefiting from the ‘AED Prépro’ scheme, all other things being equal. In other words, we will try to find out the effect of being a study-grant holder on participating in the scheme when other socio-demographic variables, school and university success, are controlled. For example, we assume that being on scholarship plays a smaller role on the probability of being an ‘AED Prépro’ student than the variables measuring academic or school success in the models. Indeed, merit is still a central value of the French education system and the ‘AED Prépro’ scheme seems to focus on students from working-class backgrounds marked by upwardly mobile trajectories. Thanks to our qualitative analysis, we have observed that the criterion of academic success appears to be very important in the discussions for selecting applicants, even more so than the criterion of the social origin of the beneficiaries. An in-depth analysis of the students' trajectories will allow us to better understand the variables that significantly influence the probability of benefiting from the program.

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