Is learning a victim of its own success? Faced with the expenses of apprentice training centers (CFA) which have swelled, the State wants to revise their funding downwards. The sums paid by France Skills, the organization in charge of learning, will decrease by an average of 5% from the start of the school year. They represent approximately 70% of the total financing of the CFAs.
For France Competences, it is above all a question of putting an end to a drift. In a report published last June, the Court of Auditors pointed out “an increase in the cost of training per apprentice of at least 17% and unjustified differences between training at the same level and in the same field”. She also noted “an average difference of around 20%” between the levels of support (what is paid to the CFAs for each apprenticeship contract) and the actual costs of training.
“Costs have already been incurred”
Pascal Picault, president of the National Federation of CFA Directors (Fnadir), does not dispute the abuses that may exist. But he regrets that this measure takes effect now. ” Budgets were established in January and costs have already been incurred. Change now the levels of support, this can endanger CFAs, he explains. We are not against a reduction in funding. It is undoubtedly necessary. But we ask that this be discussed with us and postponed to the 2023 budget. Especially since the training centers, many of which have to buy raw materials for technical lessons, have to deal with significant inflation, he underlines.
According to the president of Fnadir, sectors such as catering, home help or construction could even see their funding drop by 30 to 40%. “Some colleagues tell us that they are not sure of being able to open all their sections at the start of the school year”, warns Pascal Picault. A situation all the more damaging, in his eyes, as these are sectors that are already struggling to recruit.
This drop in funding also worries the National Association of Apprentices of France (Anaf). “It is to be feared that this cut will result in a reduction in the measures offered in addition to training: boarding school, catering, support for apprentices in their international mobility or in entering the world of work”explains Aurélien Cadiou, its president.
400 million euros in savings
On the side of France Skills, it is specified that only certain levels of support have been lowered due to a difference between the sums paid and the actual cost of the training. This concerns only 13% of them. The other reductions were decided by the professional branches themselves, which set the amounts allocated for the contracts which concern them. As for the shortfall, the organization recalls that the regions are endowed each year with 400 million euros to participate in the financing of the CFA.
This drop in funding should allow France Skills, which has been accumulating debts in recent years, to save 400 million euros. In 2021, its deficit amounted to 3.2 billion euros. And according to the report of the Court of Auditors, it could reach 5.9 billion euros in 2022. Some 400 million additional euros will undoubtedly have to be saved in 2023, when the sums paid to the CFAs will be analyzed according to the accounting reports. of 2021.
Soon 800,000 apprentices
The organization’s spending on learning has tripled in four years, rising from 3 to 9 billion euros today. In question: the number of apprentices which has exploded in recent years. In two years, it has almost doubled, reaching 730,000 in 2021. This enthusiasm for apprenticeship has been favored by the government, whose objective is to reach one million apprentices by the end of the five-year term.
Since 2020, the state has granted financial aid to companies that hire apprentices. A few weeks ago, Parliament voted to extend it for six months, until the end of 2022. With an envelope of 743 million planned, the number of apprentices could reach 800,000 by the end of the year.