After the announcement on January 27 of the largest drop in unemployment in twelve years, 3.1% in 2019 in mainland France, here is another good news on the employment front. Whether they are in CAP, bac pro, BTS or master, apprentices, these young people who alternate theoretical training with work in a company, have never been so numerous.
In June 2019, there were 458,000, a figure up 8.4% compared to 2018, which was already an excellent vintage. Since September 2018 and the passing of the law "for the freedom to choose one's professional future", the Ministry of Labor has registered 554 new requests for training centers (CFA) throughout the territory.
In parallel with easier access to training, via the creation of an app accessible to as many people as possible, the reform aims to increase the number of apprenticeships. The creation of CFAs by companies has been facilitated and the diplomas they issue are now defined by professional branches.
Crafts, bakery, building…
The objective? Better “stick” to the needs of the field while, from industry to services, recruiters point to the lack of available profiles. "Apprenticeship is a good answer, because it allows companies to train young people and make them aware of the house culture, before recruiting them," decrypts Bertrand Martinot, the director of training consultancy at Siaci Saint Honoré.
And for the young people concerned, it is almost guaranteed to have long-term employment in the long term. Currently, 69% of apprentices have a job in the seven months following their exit from training, a figure that has grown steadily in recent years - this employment rate was 55% in 2013, underlines the Higher Institute of Trades. And this employment rate increases with the diploma: it reaches 82% among Bacs pro, and even 88% after a BTS (bac + 2).
Apprentices are welcome in all sectors. In the craft industry, which drains "around half of the apprentices, we still recruited 3 to 4% more in 2019", underlines Alain Griset, the president of U2P. The percentage of apprentices is around 13% of the workforce in the bakery. In the building industry, after a decline from 2012 to 2016, the number of apprentices started to rise again.
Benefit young people without training
This development can be explained, according to Alain Griset, by the “increasingly positive image” of apprentices. The ministry highlights the work done to change French mentalities on this issue. The videos made everywhere in France by apprentices themselves totaled 16 million views on social networks.
A - big - flat, however, in this rather laughing picture: the least qualified young people, who are also the most distant from employment, are those who benefit the least from these devices. "While, since 2005, the number of apprentices in Masters and Grandes Ecoles has jumped 10.6% per year, it has decreased by 1.5% per year in professional baccalaureate and CAP", summarizes Bertrand Martinot.
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And this movement has become even more marked in the past two years: the number of super-qualified apprentices has jumped 24% per year since 2015! Being paid allows future engineers and other business school students to finance often expensive studies. "This system should go as a priority to the less qualified, affected by a high unemployment rate", continues Bertrand Martinot, who points out the risk "that the inequalities between the most and the least qualified continue to increase".
If there is no miracle recipe, one avenue could be to continue the efforts made on the image of learning before the bac: currently, only one young person in 20 chooses this training path to end of college.