From dropout to bar manager: Yann's way back

When the Lëtzebuerger Journal met Yann, he was a 24-year-old searching for direction. Like 7.4 per cent of pupils, he had left secondary school before obtaining his school-leaving certificate. Complicated family relationships, a year in a children's home at the age of 12, another at the state-run Dreiborn socio-educational centre, an unfinished apprenticeship as a mechanic… A checkered path that led his girlfriend at the time to refer him to Youth & Work, a social impact company that supports 18–29-year-olds in taking a step forward in their careers or finding their way in the world of work. Yann took part in a work placement at the end of 2022. The aim was to set up a TikTok campaign for a Big Four firm – and, above all, to showcase his skills whilst learning the ropes of the professional world and the value of teamwork. The project proved a success for Yann, but it also left him feeling somewhat dizzy as he discovered "a part of [himself] that had been dormant" and which he hadn't even suspected existed. What has become of the young man who once agonised so much over an uncertain future?