Apprenticeships in higher education: yes, but not at any price
Has the drive to promote apprenticeships gone too far, especially in higher education? To avoid a windfall effect, it's important to ensure that young people are properly supervised.
Marion Polge, University of Montpellier and Sarah Mussol, University of Montpellier
The French government has never been so supportive of apprenticeships. Despite severe budgetary tensions, a press release from the Ministry of Labor (December 30, 2024) announced hiring aid of €5,000 for companies with fewer than 250 employees and €2,000 for others in 2025. Since the 2018 reform, hiring aid had amounted to €6,000.
According to the French 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 pace of growth apparently slowing. The significant cost of the measures underway (25 billion euros 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 Cour des Comptes in a June 2022 report. The recent report published by the Inspectorate General of Finance in March 2024 suggests ways forward for financial support for apprenticeships, given the contrasting results of the measures.
A mixed picture of professionalization
The high hopes placed in the improved integration of students into the world of work must be qualified. Whereas in the 1990s, the development of apprenticeships enabledcompanies to be more closely involved in training programs, the impact of work-study programs on professional integration needs to be put into perspective.) The results of a Cereq study of Master's students conclude that the relationship between stable employment at 30 months and apprenticeship is not obvious.
On the other hand, other positive effects, such as responsibility and remuneration, are less objective than hiring itself. In this way, the work-study program puts the links between work, employment and quality of life into perspective. For Laura Gérardin, (HSE manager, France TV studio, apprenticeship supervisor):
"Apprenticeships are mainly about giving them a foot in the pro door, really knowing what they want from their future profession."
The quality of some training courses challenged
Above all, financial support for apprenticeships has whetted the appetite of many private-sector organizations seeking a new business model. Relying on an aggressive commercial policy, they offer students studies virtually financed by apprenticeships, and employers inexpensive apprentices with very light school agendas. As the TV program Complément d'enquête (April 24, 2024, France2), the opacity created by the system benefits certain schools, sometimes backed by major groups, to the detriment of genuine quality training.
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On the business side, Muriel Fournier, manager of Espace Propreté, notes:
"I have apprentices at different schools. In well-known establishments, they are less available, the schedules are more rigid. But the students have real training, they come back to us with new ideas and, in the end, they bring us the essential: knowledge and critical thinking."
As discontent mounts among some employers and students, the system is sinking into a two-tier system (priority training vs. work experience), with the utmost opacity.
Complex support
The magic formula of work-study programs hides a complex support system that universities have set up with extensive programs to validate students' assignments, link these assignments to the pedagogical content of the programs and support the student throughout the contract. For example, a student on an apprenticeship program for a master's degree in hotel management and tourism does not have to do service work. They may take part on an exceptional basis, but their mission is above all managerial.
The apprentice must also be monitored on a daily basis by an apprentice master, who ensures that he or she is acquiring new skills on the job, in line with the training provided at the school.
Apprentices cannot and must not be considered as "discount employees".
When they're on the job, apprentices are also - and this must be stressed - in training. "You have to give them time to develop their skills, build their interpersonal skills and show them what it's like to work in the field," says apprenticeship supervisor Laura Gérardin. https://www.youtube.com/embed/i3y8q6j55hM?wmode=transparent&start=0 Figaro TV, 2024.
Have all the supervisors fully grasped the importance of their role for the future of future graduates? Do we really have the means to support them in their supervisory missions? Human resources are sometimes in short supply, and lack of time means that apprentice supervision can become lax. Universities were not built around this kind of professional training: they need to adapt their culture.
A risk of superficiality?
The introduction of financial incentives has radically overhauled not only the training system, but also its teaching methods. The sandwich course broadens knowledge areas, but reduces their depth. It requires the commitment of academic tutors and apprenticeship masters to compensate for the discontinuity in pedagogical rhythms.
This company-university link also provides the necessary framework for the development of new skills and supported know-how. Apprenticeship is therefore an ambitious training project: but do we have the resources? Have we really rethought the meaning of work-study training?
Too many schools are turning this innovative, collaborative training framework into a profitable business case, at the cost of poorly trained young people who will become disillusioned future employees. Sometimes unscrupulous, but often lacking in knowledge of the teaching profession, these structures remind us that our student apprentices are the seeds of tomorrow's skills.
Marion Polge, Senior Lecturer in Management Sciences, University of Montpellier and Sarah Mussol, Senior Lecturer in Management Sciences, University of Montpellier
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