Free Practice Questions for CAPLP

The Certificat d'Aptitude au Professorat de Lycée Professionnel (CAPLP) is a national competitive examination (Catégorie A civil service recruitment) organized by the French Ministry of National Education. Laureates become tenured teachers in vocational high schools (lycées professionnels) and vocational sections of multipurpose lycées (SEP). They educate students pursuing vocational qualifications such as the CAP (Certificat d'Aptitude Professionnelle) and Baccalauréat Professionnel, providing either general instruction (in bivalent pairs such as French and History-Geography) or specialized technical training across diverse industrial, commercial, healthcare, and artisanal trades.

Under the governing arrêté du 17 avril 2025 and arrêté du 25 janvier 2021, the external concours for the general-education sections comprises one or two written admissibility papers and two oral admission tests, and is accessible at the bac+3 (Licence) level. For technical and trade disciplines, specific vocational diplomas coupled with five years of verified professional experience in the trade remain mandatory. In the admissibility phase an overall mark equal to or below 5/20 is eliminatory. Admission comprises a section-specific disciplinary lesson/pedagogical presentation (oral 1) and a universal 35-minute interview (oral 2, coefficient 3) assessing professional motivation, republican values including laïcité, civil service ethics, and ecological transition. A mark of 0 at admission is eliminatory.

No. Disciplinary written papers and the first oral admission test are strictly section-specific across dozens of distinct vocational fields (e.g., génie civil, hôtellerie-restauration, carrosserie, lettres-histoire). This OpenExamPrep practice bank focuses on the universal foundational knowledge required of all PLP teachers regardless of their specialty: vocational high school curriculum architecture (CAP and Bac Pro), PFMP internship legal oversight and student safety, specialized vocational pedagogies (co-intervention, chef-d'œuvre, CCF), civil service statutory obligations (décret n° 92-1189), and Republican educational values assessed in the shared second oral test.

Unlike general secondary teachers (certifiés CAPES) who teach a single subject, general PLP teachers are statutory bivalents. The main general bivalent sections are Lettres-Histoire et Géographie (French literature, history, and geography), Mathématiques-Physique Chimie (mathematics and physical-chemical sciences), Anglais-Lettres (English and French), and Espagnol-Lettres (Spanish and French). These teachers teach both subjects to their vocational classes and frequently partner with vocational trade teachers in co-intervention sessions.

Périodes de Formation en Milieu Professionnel (PFMP) are mandatory workplace training periods required for graduation. In a 2-year CAP program, students must complete 12 to 14 weeks of PFMP. In a 3-year Baccalauréat Professionnel program, students must complete 18 to 22 weeks across the cycle. Every PFMP requires a tripartite agreement (convention de stage) signed prior to student arrival by the head of school, the host company, and the student (or legal guardians if minor). High school students receive a State-funded financial allowance (allocation financière de stage), and minor students operating regulated machinery must be covered by a formal administrative declaration of derogation (dérogation pour travaux réglementés) under the French Labour Code.

Key pedagogical pillars include: (1) Co-intervention, where a general education teacher (Maths or French) and a vocational trade teacher jointly teach students in workshops or classrooms around authentic professional tasks; (2) The Chef-d'œuvre, a multidisciplinary capstone project developed individually or collectively over one or two years and evaluated in a terminal oral defense; and (3) Contrôle en Cours de Formation (CCF), an assessment mode where teachers evaluate students during ongoing training when competencies are mastered, complementing or replacing terminal national examinations.

Under décret n° 92-1189 du 6 novembre 1992, the maximum weekly teaching obligation for a PLP is 18 hours of instruction (service d'enseignement). In addition to classroom and workshop instruction, PLP duties encompass lesson preparation, assessment, student orientation counseling, coordination with enterprise tutors, on-site PFMP supervision visits, team meetings, and participation in exam juries and school councils.