2024-01-09 17:53:31
From the start of his first mandate, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, initiated a structural reform of apprenticeship via the law of September 5, 2018 for the freedom to choose one’s professional future. The executive then increased it from July 2020 in response to the health crisis, granting exceptional public aid to employers for all new contracts up to and including bac+5, aid of a fixed amount of 6,000 euros in 2024.
The results of these measures are spectacular because between the end of 2018 and the end of 2022, the number of apprenticeship entrants increased 2.6 times, from 321,000 to 837,000 new contracts (and from 112,000 in 2017 to 522,000 in 2022). in higher education). Better still, the system has become a real springboard for employment since one year after leaving school, 70% of apprentices were employed in the private sector for levels ranging from CAP to BTS (bac + 2 level) compared to Only 50% of professional high school students.
At the bachelor’s and master’s level, the gap still remains 5 points with an employment rate at 18 months of around 90%. At the macroeconomic level, the different studies converge to attribute to the learning policy the creation of approximately 250,000 salaried jobs between the end of 2019 and the end of 2022.
This success, however, comes at a high cost for public finances, which has gone from 6 billion euros in 2018 to 16.8 in 2022, or 3.4 times more in just 4 years. The beneficiaries having doubled, the average unit cost has therefore increased significantly, from 14,403 to 22,736 euros per year +57.9%. To these expenses, we should also add the estimate of the social rights acquired by apprentices, namely in the short term on unemployment and in the very long term on retirement.
Amendment rejected
In addition to the cost of the reforms, it is their fairness which is widely criticized on the grounds that the system no longer only finances vulnerable populations far from employment but excellent training at master’s level. In fact, 37.6% of new contracts aim to obtain a baccalaureate level diploma or lower in 2022 compared to 63.2% in 2017. These findings have sparked controversy even in the ranks of the presidential majority, the deputy Marc Ferracci (Renaissance) having tabled an amendment to the Finance Bill for 2024 restricting aid to diplomas of less than bac+2 on the grounds that:
“Apprenticeship has diminishing returns with the level of qualification, we must ask ourselves the question of the effectiveness of aid in higher education.”
This amendment, supported by Bercy who saw it as an opportunity to save 700 million euros in public subsidies per year, was finally dismissed by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne in the name of the objective of one million apprentices before the end of the present five-year term set by the President of the Republic.
Higher education indeed promotes the acquisition of advanced technical skills in a developed knowledge economy. It encourages young people to extend their studies and therefore obtain better remuneration. According to the Economic Analysis Council (CAE), a bachelor’s or bac+3 level diploma allows you to earn 30% more than a bachelor’s degreea master’s level diploma (bac+5) 60% more and a Grande Ecole diploma 80% more.
More than economic benefits
The scientific literature has evaluated the performance of studies on lifelong work income by updating all of this income (net of social charges and income tax) over the 42 years of employment activity. a professional career while deducting both the cost of the years of study and the opportunity cost of lost earnings during training. The conclusion is clear since a master’s level high school diploma (bac+5) would ensure on average a discounted permanent income net of taxes and costs associated with the diploma of 720,000 euros compared to 490,000 euros for a bachelor’s degree and 500 000 euros for a bac+3 diploma.
It should also be noted that the 2018 and 2020 reforms significantly reduce the opportunity cost for apprentices because their training (which can cost up to 20,000 euros per year in a major management school) is fully covered and They receive a salary (admittedly lower than a first job) during their studies.
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To these financial gains linked to greater capabilitywe must add other less tangible but real advantages that the CAE highlights: better protection against unemployment, better professional opportunities, better social recognition but also an increase in indicators of health, well-being and hope. of life and therefore ultimately more comfortable retirements served for longer.
Since education increases the productivity of those who receive it (even if it is logically lower during the learning phase), at the macroeconomic level the benefits of learning must also be weighed.
So-called socio-economic benefits include public socio-fiscal returns such as public revenue (income taxes, social charges, etc.) generated by higher labor remuneration, of the order of 8.5% of the public investment in higher education. These benefits also include additional positive externalities such as improving the overall health of the population or even less delinquency. The available studies estimate it roughly at around 2.5%, i.e. a very high overall social return on higher education of the order of 11% in OECD countries.
Regulating the supply jungle
To reconcile the educational, social and economic logic of learning, it is however possible to improve the regulation of a training offer that has become plethoric by strengthening control of access to public funding. France Skillsthe organization created on 1is January 2019 to check the quality of the training courses registered in the National directory of professional certifications (RNCP), was already returning in 2022 almost 50% of requests for renewal or creation of training courses.
The regulator could now strengthen its mission by ensuring a rigorous external audit of the suitability for the professions of the training offered by universities whose state diplomas are still currently recognized as of right. It could also prohibit the rental of RNCP titles which too often allows private pharmacies without a real educational project to benefit from the title of accredited training in return for an opaque fee.
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