In a buzz, the quadcopter rises from the ground before weaving between cones. At the controls is Quentin, a student in professional drone technology, a unique school program in France that interests the army. Eleven students from Louise Weiss high school in Sainte-Marie-aux-mines, a small town in Alsace, are the first to inaugurate this specialty as part of their professional Sky (Cybersecurity, IT and networks, electronics) program. In the electronics laboratory, the teenagers are engaged in various activities. Two of them are working on a test bench to determine at what speed the drone is likely to take off. Damien, 18 years old, is assembling an S500 V2 kit to understand how to build a drone from scratch. The goal is to learn to “create it ourselves”.
The only girl in the class, Charlotte, is working on a model of a ruined tower reconstructed in 3D with images captured by a drone. During the training, Charlotte learned rules related to drone use, such as restricted flying zones requiring authorization. By including a drone option in this professional program, the idea was to create an innovative pathway using drones as tools, explained the school principal, François Ginoux.
The school has partnered with the air force. Army instructors taught drone piloting to students and showed them around air bases in the region. These skills are of interest to the army, as drones are needed for surveillance and security of military sites, and for implementing countermeasures against hostile drones. The army had 3,000 drones at the beginning of the year, and will have 15,000 by the end of 2026.
Among the students, Nolan, 17, aims for a military career and believes his drone knowledge will give him an advantage. While using drones as weapons is not the goal, reconnaissance and surveillance missions are possibilities. Besides the military, other sectors find drone technology promising, such as companies using drones for thermal monitoring or the agricultural sector.
Alban, 20, sees drone technology more as a hobby but recognizes its practical applications. The drone option has attracted significant interest in the Sky program, with students even being turned away at the beginning of the year due to high demand. The goal is to establish and expand this program to several high schools in France, as there is currently no equivalent pathway available.
