Apprenticeships in higher education, yes, but not at any price
Have efforts to promote apprenticeships gone too far, particularly in higher education? To avoid windfall effects, it is important to ensure that young people receive proper supervision.
Marion Polge, University of Montpellier and Sarah Mussol, University of Montpellier
The government has never provided so much support for apprenticeships. Despite significant budgetary constraints, a press release from the Ministry of Labor (December 30, 2024) announced a hiring subsidy of €5,000 for companies with fewer than 250 employees and €2,000 for others in 2025. Since the 2018 reform, the hiring subsidy has been €6,000.
According to the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the number of apprentices has risen from 51,000 in 2000 to over 600,000 in 2024, with the rate of growth appearing to slow down. The significant cost of the measures undertaken (€25 billion in 2022 to be borne by the State) must be weighed against the results in terms of professional integration and, above all, the reconfiguration of the training landscape, as already pointed out by the Court of Auditors in a report in June 2022. The recent report published by the General Inspectorate of Finance in March 2024 proposes ways in which financial support for apprenticeships could be developed, given the mixed results of the measures.
A mixed picture of professionalization
The immense hope placed in improving students' employability remains to be qualified. While in the 1990s, the development of apprenticeships made it possibleto involve companies more closely in training, today it seems necessary to put the impact of work-study programs on employability into perspective. The results of a Cereq study on master's students conclude that the relationship between stable employment at 30 months and apprenticeships is not clear.
On the other hand, other positive effects such as responsibility and remuneration reflect issues that are less objective than the hiring itself. Work-study programs are therefore a situation that puts the links between work, employment, and quality of life into perspective. According to Laura Gérardin (HSE manager, France TV studio, apprenticeship supervisor):
"Apprenticeships mainly serve to give them a foothold in the professional world, to really find out what they expect from their future career."
The quality of certain training courses questioned
Financial support for apprenticeships has mainly whetted the appetite of many private organizations looking for a new business model. Backed by an aggressive marketing strategy, they offer students studies that are almost entirely funded by apprenticeships and employers inexpensive apprentices with very light school schedules. As discussed at length in the program Complément d'enquête (April 24, 2024, France2), the opacity created by the system benefits certain schools, sometimes supported by large corporations, to the detriment of truly high-quality training.
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On the business side, Muriel Fournier, director of Espace Propreté, notes:
"I have apprentices in different schools. In well-known institutions, they are less available and the schedules are more rigid. But the students receive real training, they come back to us with new ideas and, ultimately, they bring us what matters most: knowledge and critical thinking."
As discontent grows among some employers and students, the system is sinking into a two-tier system (prioritizing education over work experience) with a complete lack of transparency.
Complex support
The magic formula of work-study programs hides a complex support system that universities have put in place with heavy programs in order to validate students' assignments, link these assignments to the educational content of the programs, and also to support students throughout the contract. Thus, a student enrolled in a master's degree program in hotel and tourism management does not have to work in service. They may participate on an exceptional basis, but their mission is primarily managerial.
He must also be supervised on a daily basis by an apprenticeship supervisor who ensures that he acquires new skills in the workplace that complement his training at school.
The apprentice cannot and must not be considered a "cheap employee."
When they are at the company, apprentices are also, it must be emphasized, in training. "You have to devote time to them to help them develop their skills, build their interpersonal skills, and show them the reality of the workplace," explains Laura Gérardin, apprenticeship supervisor. https://www.youtube.com/embed/i3y8q6j55hM?wmode=transparent&start=0, Figaro TV, 2024.
Have all those involved fully grasped the importance of their role in shaping the future of these graduates? Do we really have the resources to support them in their supervisory duties? Human resources are sometimes lacking, and due to time constraints, the monitoring of apprentices can be neglected. Universities were not built around these vocational training programs: they need to adapt their culture.
A risk of superficiality?
The introduction of financial incentives has profoundly changed the training system, as well as its teaching methods. Work-study programs broaden the scope of knowledge, but reduce the depth of learning. They require commitment from academic tutors and apprenticeship supervisors to compensate for the discontinuity of teaching rhythms.
This collaboration between businesses and universities also helps to develop the necessary framework for developing new skills and supported expertise. Apprenticeships are therefore an ambitious training project, but do we have the means to support them? Have we truly rethought the meaning of work-study training?
Too many schools are turning this innovative collaborative training framework intoaprofitablebusiness case, at the expense of poorly trained young people who will become disengaged future employees. Sometimes unscrupulous, but often due to a lack of knowledge about the teaching profession, these structures remind us that our student apprentices are the seeds of tomorrow's skills.
Marion Polge, Associate Professor in Management Sciences, University of Montpellier and Sarah Mussol, Associate Professor in Management Sciences, University of Montpellier
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