Paris (AFP)

In the heart of summer, Paris lives in slow motion. But in August, this is not the case for a few hundred young people, entered the third week of a marathon to try to integrate a school of a new kind, the school.

This free computer coding school was created by French telecom billionaire Xavier Niel in 2013 to help young people find work or, better yet, become their own boss. It takes its name from the novel "Douglas Galactic Traveler's Guide", in which the computer gives as an answer to "the big question of life, the universe and everything": "42".

The establishment was a huge success. About 40,000 apprentice developers apply each year. But only 3,000 will compete for the thousand places available, through the four-week test session called the "pool", organized in an ultra-modern building.

During the "swimming pool", the immersion is total: the candidates devote from 10 to 16 hours per day to the tests and the projects. Some, like Aristide Rivet-Tissot, sleep and wash on the spot ...

"Here you are so immersed that you sometimes forget that the outside world exists!", Said the 19-year-old postulant to AFP, while saluting his parents from the province, who carry his dirty laundry.

- Dropouts welcome -

When Xavier Niel announced his free school project, without teachers and also open to dropouts - 40% of students do not have a bachelor's degree - the main employers' federation of the IT sector had reacted cautiously, pointing the number of engineering schools already existing.

Six years later, this self-study facility, entirely based on project work and peer learning, boasts a 100% employment rate among its graduates.

Now, Niel, which created the world's largest start-up incubator in Paris in 2017, is exporting its model.

After founding a sister university in Silicon Valley in 2016 and starting various partnerships in Europe, he is targeting Rio de Janeiro, Novosibirsk, Tokyo ... The goal: 20 partner schools in 14 countries by 2020.

- 75,000 unoccupied jobs -

Last year, a survey conducted by the French employment agency revealed more than 75,000 job vacancies in the information technology sector. In fact, many students are approached by head hunters even before completing their course, an average of three years.

Bastien Botella, 33, co-founder of Clevy, a start-up that develops chatbots, left "42" after only the first third of the training, for a job of web designer. This former hotel manager, not a bachelor, had previously been refused by several conventional computer schools.

"42 was a turning point in my life," says the one who today employs 21 people, including 6 alumni of "42".

- The digital, social lift -

The inclusive approach is often praised while various international studies, including Pisa, show that in France, more than elsewhere, social inequalities weigh on the results of students.

"The digital sector (...) allows the social elevator.You have people from very different horizons, very varied," says the director Sophie Viger.

During the "pool", leaning towards 27-inch screens, the faces are white, black, brown ... At school 42, there are also veiled women like Fatia Zementzali, 31, who explains that she has applied after having she was fired from a saleswoman position by telephone because she wore a Muslim headscarf. Here, she says she feels "welcomed", not reduced to an image of "veiled woman".

Although not recognized by the State, the program was particularly welcomed in 2015 by Emmanuel Macron, then Minister of Finance: the school "introduces innovation into education is what we need and c "is great!"

And last year, the National Commission for Computing and Liberty blasted it for "excessive video surveillance". A problem settled, according to Sophie Viger.

© 2019 AFP