Become an engineer with a BTSA
March 20 2025Initiated in 2023 by the Direction régionale de l’alimentation, de l’agriculture et de la forêt de la région Île-de-France (DRIAAF) and the directors of agricultural technical secondary schools, the program “Becoming an engineer with a BTSA” responds to a call for projects from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty. The aim of this call for projects is to raise awareness and promote the success of BTSA students and encourage them to continue their studies thanks to a simplified, secure and facilitated pathway.
Ensuring the renewal of generations
To ensure generational renewal and manage transitions, France needs to train new farmers, but also senior technicians and engineers in the field of agricultural development to support them. This is why the agricultural orientation law, passed by Parliament in February 2025, sets a target of 30% more agricultural engineers by 2030 compared to 2017. As a result, the number of places on competitive entrance exam courses has increased in recent years and will continue to grow between now and 2030.
A desire to create vocations
The creation of this program is driven by the desire to create vocations and recruit more BTSA students into our courses. It aims to strengthen the links between higher education, agronomic and agri-food research and secondary agricultural education establishments with the aim of promoting the success of students in pursuing long studies and in particular towards the agricultural engineering course.
Access route and entrance exams
Students and apprentices in BTSA now benefit from a course that is:
- simplified: the ATS Bio preparatory class has been removed,
- secure: the agro and vet entrance exams are held during the second year of BTSA and students are given definitive admission to national agronomy or veterinary schools at the end of their BTSA,
- facilitated: the agro and vet competitive entrance exams are reserved for and adapted to BTSA.
The joint BTS/BTSA/BTSM entrance exams, reformed in 2024, allow students from these courses to enter agricultural engineering schools as students, after spending a year in a transition class.
The apprenticeship entrance exam is open to BTS, BTSA, professional degrees and BUT. It allows students to enter an agricultural engineering school directly as apprentices.
The program carried out by AgroParisTech
At AgroParisTech, this program presents a major challenge in terms of recruiting BTSA students and creating vocations. To enable these students to consider studying agricultural engineering, the institution carries out various activities throughout the year to meet students from agricultural high schools, introduce them to the courses on offer and make them want to pursue their studies in the agricultural engineering curriculum.
This program involves student ambassadors from AgroParisTech, two lecturer-researchers involved in teaching, the manager of the Farm’InnLab, and the training management team that coordinates this program, in conjunction with the DRIAAF and agricultural high schools.