Global Challenges, Local Solutions: Crée ton Avenir

At the Alliance for Decision Education, we believe that empowering students with decision-making skills is a universal need—but the path to achieving this goal looks different in every country. Educational systems, cultural values, and policy landscapes vary widely across borders, creating unique challenges and opportunities for advancing Decision Education. That’s why we’re launching this blog series to spotlight our international organizational partners and learn from their experiences on the ground.

Each post will feature insights from organizations leading the charge in their own countries, sharing how they’re adapting Decision Education to their local contexts, overcoming barriers, and creating meaningful impact for students, educators, and communities. Today we feature an interview with our organizational partner in France, Crée ton Avenir.

Crée ton Avenir is a French nonprofit organization that supports young people aged 11 to 25 in building their educational and career pathways. We design pedagogical tools, classroom workshops, and partnerships with companies to help students better understand themselves, explore professional sectors, and develop essential life skills—including decision-making. Our goal is to empower every young person to take ownership of their life’s path and reduce inequalities in access to information and opportunities.

In France, Decision Education is not yet formally recognized as a key competency within the national curriculum. However, the Parcours Avenir program (a French national education initiative designed to raise awareness about the professional world throughout middle and high school) encourages students to reflect on their academic and career choices from middle school to high school. Teachers often lack structured resources or training to approach decision-making as a learning process. At the same time, educational reforms and complex digital platforms (like Parcoursup—the official French online platform for applying to the first year of higher education) make it increasingly necessary to help young people strengthen their ability to make informed decisions.

One main challenge is moving beyond a purely informational approach to career guidance—which often focuses only on pathways and jobs—toward an educational approach that develops decision-making skills. Social inequalities also play a strong role: some students receive a lot of family support, while others lack any. The opportunity lies in a growing recognition among educators and policymakers that decision-making is a universal skill essential for personal growth and social equity. This opens the door for new pedagogical innovations and collaborations.

Decision-making is essential for helping young people take ownership of their educational, career, and life paths. For students, it builds autonomy, self-awareness, and resilience. For teachers, it provides a meaningful framework to guide educational activities and make them more equitable. For educational leaders, it is a powerful tool to promote student success and long-term social mobility. In an uncertain world, learning how to make decisions thoughtfully is as important as what one decides.

We have developed a four-step pedagogical framework that helps students identify their options, seek information, anticipate consequences, and make an informed decision. This approach is implemented in secondary schools across France. For example, in 9th grade, students use this method to choose between the general/technological or vocational high school tracks. Teachers report that students gain clarity and a better understanding of their preferences and constraints—leading to more deliberate and satisfying choices.

French education is still quite academic and hierarchical, which sometimes limits the focus on non-academic skills like decision-making. However, there is a growing shift toward active learning and socio-emotional competencies. In many families, educational choices are made collectively, often with strong parental influence, whereas others encourage independence. These cultural dynamics shape how young people perceive autonomy and the decision-making process.

International collaboration allows us to exchange best practices, develop shared frameworks, and advocate for the global recognition of Decision Education as a core life skillset. It also helps contextualize our work within broader challenges—from social inequalities to digital transformation. By connecting initiatives across borders, we can create a stronger movement that empowers educators and students to make informed decisions in a complex and interconnected world.

We hope that Decision Education will become fully integrated into the French educational system, recognized as a key component of students’ personal and academic development. Our vision is that every student—regardless of background—will be guided through a structured process of learning how to choose. We also aim to equip teachers with resources and training so they can confidently support this skill building. Ultimately, we see Decision Education as a cornerstone of equal opportunity and lifelong learning.

Global Association of Applied Behavioural Scientists (GAABS)
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