How a vocational school won over lower-secondary pupils before its open days

The Lycée des métiers entre Meurthe et Sanon is based in Dombasle-sur-Meurthe, Lorraine, not far from Nancy. It trains students in car mechanics, bodywork and paint, construction plant maintenance, chemical and water processes, and sales. Its facilities are the envy of many: a real training garage, specialist labs, modern technical workshops and boarding facilities.

Despite these strengths, the school faced a major challenge: recruiting its future pupils. And this is where the case speaks volumes, because the audience is lower-secondary pupils and their families. A very connected generation that fairs and brochures were no longer enough to reach.

First step: understanding the school, its audience, its goals, the spaces to showcase and the tone the tour should take. The most emblematic places were then captured: car mechanics workshops, bodywork and paint workshops, technical areas, school life. Thanks to the menu, visitors jump in one click to the car maintenance workshop or the paint workshop, among the most viewed entries.

Results were measured from 20 January to 18 April 2025, over the first three months online. In April, the mechanics workshop held visitors for 3 minutes on average, nearly three times the time spent on a standard website. People linger where the trade can be seen.

Let’s go back over the problem point by point. The ageing image has had a serious refresh. Limited visibility has turned into more than 34,000 views, including 14,000 from Google Street View. Standard content that overlooked the workshops has given way to a tour in which people spend 3 minutes in the mechanics workshop. And communication, until then driven by fairs, brochures and open days, now has a shop window open all year round, which has already generated 20 enquiries.