Apprenticeships in higher education: yes, but not at any cost
Have efforts to promote apprenticeships gone too far, particularly in higher education? To avoid a free-ride effect, it is important to ensure that young people receive proper guidance.
Marion Polge, University of Montpellier and Sarah Mussol, University of Montpellier
The government has never provided such strong 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 had 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, though the rate of growth appears to be slowing. The significant cost of the measures implemented (€25 billion in 2022 borne by the state) must be weighed against the results in terms of job placement and, above all, the restructuring of the training landscape, as the Court of Auditors already noted in a June 2022 report. The recent report published by the General Inspectorate of Finance in March 2024 proposes directions for the future of financial support for apprenticeships, given the mixed results of the measures.
A mixed record of professional development
The high hopes placed on improving students’ job placement rates need to be qualified. While in the 1990s the expansion of apprenticeship programs helpedto involve businesses more closely in training, today it seems necessary to put the impact of work-study programs on job placement 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-cut.
On the other hand, other positive aspects such as responsibility and compensation reflect factors that are less objective than the hiring process itself. Work-study programs thus provide a context that highlights the connections between work, employment, and quality of life. According to Laura Gérardin (HSE Manager, France TV Studio, apprenticeship supervisor):
“The main purpose of an apprenticeship is to give them a foothold in the professional world and to help them truly understand what their future career entails.”
The quality of certain training programs is being questioned
Financial support for apprenticeships has, above all, whetted the appetite of many private institutions seeking a new business model. Relying on an aggressive marketing strategy, they offer students programs that are virtually funded by apprenticeships and provide employers with low-cost apprentices whose school schedules are significantly reduced. As the program Complément d’enquête (April 24, 2024, France2), the lack of transparency created by the system benefits certain schools—sometimes backed by large corporations—at the expense of truly high-quality education.
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On the corporate side, Muriel Fournier, CEO of Espace Propreté, notes:
“I have interns at various schools. At accredited institutions, they’re less available, and the schedules are more rigid. But the students receive a solid education; 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 sliding into a two-tier system (priority given to training versus work experience) amid a lack of transparency.
Comprehensive support
The "magic formula" of work-study programs hides a complex support system that universities have established through rigorous curricula to validate students’ assignments, link these assignments to the educational content of the programs, and provide support to students throughout the duration of their contract. Thus, a student in a master’s-level hospitality and tourism management apprenticeship program is not required to work in service. They may participate on an exceptional basis, but their primary role is managerial.
In addition, he must be supervised on a daily basis by a training supervisor who ensures that he is acquiring new skills on the job that complement his classroom training.
An apprentice cannot and should not be viewed as a “cheap laborer.”
When an apprentice is at the company, it’s important to emphasize that they are also in training. “We need to devote time to helping them develop their skills, build their professional demeanor, and show them what it’s really like on the job,” explains Laura Gérardin, an apprenticeship supervisor. https://www.youtube.com/embed/i3y8q6j55hM?wmode=transparent&start=0, Figaro TV, 2024.
Have all mentors fully grasped the importance of their role for the future of these graduates? Do we truly have the means to support them in their mentoring responsibilities? Human resources are sometimes in short supply, and due to time constraints, the monitoring of apprentices can suffer. Universities were not built around these vocational programs; they must adapt their culture.
Is there a risk of superficiality?
The introduction of financial incentives has profoundly transformed not only the training system but also its pedagogical approaches. Work-study programs broaden the scope of knowledge but limit the depth of learning. They require a commitment from academic advisors and apprenticeship supervisors to compensate for the discontinuity in the pace of instruction.
This industry-university partnership also helps create the framework needed to develop new skills and provide guided expertise. Apprenticeships thus represent an ambitious training initiative: but do we have the resources for it? Have we truly rethought the purpose of work-study training from the ground up?
Too many schools are turning this innovative collaborative training model intoaprofitable“business case,” at the expense of poorly trained young people who will become disengaged future employees. Sometimes driven by a lack of scruples, but often simply due to a lack of understanding of the teaching profession, these institutions remind us that our student apprentices hold the seeds of tomorrow’s skills.
Marion Polge, Associate Professor (HDR) in Management Sciences, University of Montpellier and Sarah Mussol, Associate Professor of Management Sciences, University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.