Plan for culture voucher for 16 year olds- how did it work in France?
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What is the French teen culture card and how does it work?
Now, one of the measures being floated in advance of the budget in two weeks' time is a 100 euro voucher for all 16-year-olds to spend on cultural and arts venues next year. The specifics are being worked out, but already some TDs are calling for the pass to be extended to sporting events. One of the models for such a scheme is the French teen culture card, which has been running for the last five years. reporter covering France who's examined how the past has worked there. She joins me now. Genevieve, good morning.
Hi, good
morning. Thanks everybody for joining us. Tell us about this card in France. How does it work?
Okay, so basically it works when kids are 15 or 16 years old, they can sign up. It's a platform, so they go online or they download the application. And from them they can see access to different cultural activities. Uh when they're 15 and 16, it's just free activities that would be near them. When they turn 17, uh they can receive a 50 euro credit. Uh and then when they turn 18, they receive uh 150. fifty euro credit. And that has to be used uh before they turn twenty one.
Okay, and what sort of things can they spend that money on?
Oh, lots of things.
Which cultural activities can teens spend their credit on?
So there are a few main categories. Uh the first one is live performances. So think going to the ballet, going to see uh a piece of theater, something like that. Um, the next ones are music. So you can go to a concert, uh, you can buy movie tickets, you can buy books, of course. That's really the bulk uh of the purchases are are are books and uh plenty of
Right, so uh I mean it i i is it any c sort of concert you can use the money for or or is it specific things? 'Cause I'm thinking like if Oasis were coming to Paris, could you use could you use your your culture card to pay for a ticket or part of a ticket for that?
Well, if it's on if it's on the Pascura platform, then yes. So basically kids, they can make any purchase as long as it's listed through the platform. Um and for books, uh, they would a lot of times it's bookstores are partnering with the platform. So uh they can purchase any book that they might be interested in uh through the platform. And it's the same thing for movie tickets. So a lot of times the platform will partner with local movie theaters and they Can pick any movie that they want to go see.
Great. And it it sometimes teachers I believe take it uh use it to take their students on cultural trips, which s sounds like a very good idea.
Exactly. Yeah.
How are teachers able to use the card for class trips?
So there's two portions of it. There's the individual side where the kids basically get a credit to use however they want. And then there's the other side that's the collective side. And that's giving teachers access to funding to be able to take their students on class trips.
Okay. Now this I think came out of uh Covid or the aftermath of COVID when the government was trying to encourage people, particularly young people, to get out and about again. Um I mean, has it outlived its usefulness or is is there still a lot to take up?
Oh well, I mean it it definitely became a lot more popular after COVID, but it was actually something that President McCall was talking about on the campaign trail in 2017. So uh they first did a trial in so in small parts of France and then they expanded it after COVID. Uh but no, I don't think it's uh it's outlived its usefulness. Um I think that the last figure I saw was that over 80% of 18-year-olds in France had signed up for it. So they There's a there's a large uptake. Uh there is a little bit of a a difference in terms of uh unfortunately there's a difference in class dynamics. So I think it's sixty-eight percent of working class kids have signed up in contrast to that average of eighty-four percent.
So there has been some pushback about whether or not it's uh it's replicating existing class dynamics, but uh there's still, you know, a lot of kids are really interested and a lot of kids are introduced. to their first local bookstore through uh the Pascoutra platform. So I do think it's still quite useful.
Did the programme originate from COVID and is it still needed?
Yes.
There was a bit of controversy, I believe, about uh people using it to buy manga comics.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the French teen culture card and how does it work?
0:00–1:10
2
Which cultural activities can teens spend their credit on?
1:10–2:26
3
How are teachers able to use the card for class trips?
2:26–3:47
4
Did the programme originate from COVID and is it still needed?
3:47–4:55
5
What are the participation rates and class‑dynamic concerns?
4:55–5:39