Will being able to pass the Bafa from the age of 16 help to reduce the lack of facilitators?

The All Saints holidays have just started, but leisure centers and summer camps have to cancel stays and activities. Not for lack of children but for lack of animators. Since 2016, the profession has been experiencing a vocation crisis. The number of aptitude certificates for facilitator functions (Bafa) issued has fallen by nearly 40%, according to figures from the National Institute for Youth and Popular Education (Injep). In an attempt to reverse the trend, a decree has just been published on October 14. It allows young people to take the Bafa from the age of 16, whereas it was 17 until now. Can this reduce the deficit of animators?

A room at the training center for the certificate of aptitude for facilitator functions (Bafa) in Bouvines, south-east of Lille, has been renamed for the occasion. Above the door, the inscription “Tribunal de grande instance”. Inside, about twenty young people, trained by the French Union of Holiday Centers (UFCV), attend a mock trial. A facilitator is implicated for several incidents during a summer camp. The objective of the staging: that young people remember when they can be held responsible, and what they incur, depending on this or that type of incident, and if the parents file a complaint.

During the eight days of training, which constitute the first stage of training at the Bafa (before a two-week practical internship in a holiday center, then a week of in-depth study on a theme), they also learn to set up activities , to manage the difficulties and adapt to the morale, to the psychological state of the children, to ensure their safety during a bike outing, or even a bivouac.

“We saw a lot of things. How to occupy the children, play games, listen to them”, explains Nathan who is only 16 years old. Since the decree published a few days ago, he too can pass the Bafa, like all his older comrades. “My mom had the Bafa so she has been bragging to me for a few years now about the merits of working with children.says the young man. And then, I’ve always had the habit of being surrounded by children.”

“My mum is a childminder so I meet children every day at home. So it came quite naturally. And I’m not particularly afraid or apprehensive about the idea of ​​supervising children.”

Nathan, 16 years old

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Nathan also underlines the experience brought by the animation, the additional line on the CV. But at 16, are you mature enough to manage a group of children? “The young Bafa graduates are part of a team. They will never be alone with children”, wants to reassure Quentin Dervaux. The person in charge of territorial animation of the UFCV, in the Hauts-de-France region, recalls that at 16 years old, “You can be a volunteer firefighter, or perform civic service. Maturity is not a question of age!”

In addition, by lowering the minimum age from 17 to 16, students in Première are allowed to take the Bafa. A less busy year than the one that follows, Terminale. “There is the Baccalaureateexplains Quentin Dervaux. We also pass the code, for the driving license. And so the Bafa can take a back seat, for teenagers as well as for their parents. And then the following year, they are in student life. They want to find a small job, which takes them less time, and which does not require training to be able to exercise it. To offer the Bafa from the age of 16 is therefore to anticipate all this less favorable period.”

And it is an essential lever according to him in order to reduce the deficit of animators. As the UFCV is both a training center and a leisure reception manager, the association has been “rather preserved”, assures Gauthier Herbomel. But the regional delegate of the UFCV in Hauts-de-France specifies that partner leisure reception centers had to “cancel stays or limit the number of places available, for lack of animators”.

Quentin Dervaux believes that lowering the minimum age to obtain the Bafa is one of the levers for solving the crisis in the recruitment of animators. (THOMAS GIRAUDEAU / RADIO FRANCE)

At the Fournes-en-Weppes leisure center, near Lille, managed by the UFCV, its director, Noémie Luttun, had a hard time putting together her team for these holidays: “A week ago, I was still looking for my last animator. Two years ago, I published a job offer, my mailbox was overflowing. I had 20-25 applications. There, I I may have one, or two. And yet, it comes two weeks later. It’s annoying.”

For her, lowering the threshold to 16 is a first step: “The little brothers and sisters of animators want to pass the Bafa too, and could not until now because they were too young.” But it is especially necessary, according to the actors of the animation, to revalorize the wages, often below the minimum wage, when they relate to the number of hours worked. “Young people are turning away from the profession, which is undervalued, with fragmented, part-time contractsanalysis Gauthier Herbomel. We must put an end to CDDs, offer CDIs. We are campaigning with the public authorities to give more resources to the sector, in order to make the profession more attractive.”

At the leisure center in Fournes-en-Weppes, which she runs, Noémie Luttun searched until the last moment for a facilitator to complete her team for the All Saints holidays. (THOMAS GIRAUDEAU / RADIO FRANCE)

The Secretary of State for Youth and Engagement announced this winter 2022 a plan to revitalize the sector, endowed with 64 million euros. The lowering of the minimum age to pass the Bafa from 17 to 16 is part of this, as is the financing of part of the Bafa training, for 30,000 young people. Sarah El Haïry also launched, on October 21, an “Animation” sector committee, whose mission is to solve the shortage of candidates for the Bafa.