You all know I imagine work-study and apprenticeship, two systems that allow students to benefit, in addition to their training, from substantial professional experience which, in these times, is an asset that cannot be neglected. However, it seems that this beautiful mechanism is starting to have some failures...
The sharp decline in work-study contracts
According to the latest available figures, work-study training shows a significant decline since over the first half of the year, the number of contracts fell by 6% compared to 2011, with 106,446 contracts signed in June compared to 113,313 last year. Interestingly enough, apprenticeship contracts targeting young people under 26 are the most affected with a drop of 6.3%, their number going from 99,699 in the first half of 2011 to 93,356 today.
You will undoubtedly tell me that, given the crisis that we have been going through for 5 years now, the situation is not that worrying... We are far from the catastrophic figures of 2009, where apprenticeship contracts had fallen by 38% in the first half. I must also recognize that the previous government reacted well by putting in place measures which helped to calm the bleeding.
However, although the situation had clearly improved, we never returned to the level of 2008... If the drop that has just occurred is worrying, it is because it is relatively unexpected. Indeed, even if the new turmoil of the crisis does not favor the visibility of companies, it was difficult to imagine such a significant decline. Especially since the device “zero apprentice load”, allowing a company with fewer than 250 employees to hire an apprentice without having to pay charges, came to an end at the end of June. We could therefore expect an increase in hiring during the last month of its application, with companies logically wanting to take advantage of a “windfall effect” which may not happen again anytime soon. Alas, the month of June was difficult with a decline of 4.5% in contracts, which is certainly better than the drop of more than 27% that occurred a month earlier, but which is in no way good news. Indeed, the fact that the figure is negative indicates that despite the economic advantage that companies could have, few of them took the risk of anticipating the hiring of a work-study student. This shows the limits of the financial incentive for job creation because, if companies have no visibility, they will not take on a new employee, even if you give them money for it. As the famous saying goes: “you don’t make a donkey drink if it’s not thirsty”…
Alternation is not the panacea…
In any case, this is what the new government seems to think, also opposing the previous parliamentary majority. For the new tenant of the Elysée, if the question of youth employment is fortunately a priority, alternation would only be one of the means of solving the problem and still not the main one as his predecessor seemed to believe. The latter had, it is true, made apprenticeship its main solution to unemployment among those under 26, even going so far as to lower the minimum age of apprentices to 14 years. With, it is good to note, results that are dazzling to say the least!
However, even if personally I do not think that work-study or apprenticeship are the only ways to bring the youth of France into employment, it is all the same an interesting system that should not be not throw it away, all this to distance itself from the previous government. Indeed, as I reminded you above, this allows the student to acquire both theoretical and practical knowledge, which constitutes an undeniable advantage compared to other young people who leave university or any other university. other educational institute.
The new Minister of Vocational Training will therefore have to take into account the bad figures, even if he affirms that "the figures for the first half of the year are generally not very significant", because given the bad figures for May and especially those for June, the return to school may be complicated...
In conclusion…
Even if alternation is not the miracle solution, as we can see by consulting the youth unemployment figures, This is an avenue that should not be overlooked.. We can also be relieved to learn that the government is working on this issue, with the main line of work being the simplification of administrative procedures which undoubtedly constitute a very significant obstacle to the access of small businesses to the alternation.
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