The article analyzes the stages of organizing the education process in social schools in France based on the example of Regional Institute of Social Work Aquitaine, Bordeaux. It is found that the Institute pays specific attention to the basic courses: professionalization and methodology; social and solidarity economy; professional approach to service; social connections and exclusion; legal approaches; project development and management; sociology of education; human development; psychopedagogy of animation project; family law; social protection and social security; research methodology; legal approach to information management for the EU countries; humour and pedagogy; oral communication and education; anthropology of education; education and philosophy, the views on the education process: family education; mental disability: history and current events; self-study and lifelong learning; psychology of education: theoretical principles, methods, educational and social practices. It is clarified that the main characteristic of social careers in France, regardless of specialization, is the ability to provide permissive and appropriate mediation between the individual, family and society, state and social structures; to act as a partner, linking the personality and society, children and adults, family and society. It is justified that there is no distinction between "social worker" and "social educator" in France. French specialists consider social work to be "personal support services for people", which is based on certain sciences (law, psychology, sociology) and accumulated experience of practical sociopsychological, health-improving, rehabilitational and therapeutic support of the individual.