On-the-job training: France stands out from its European neighbours

The European comparisons reveal the way in which companies have integrated employee training into their HR and economic strategies, which are the tools used to develop their business. This tendency is illustrated by various indicators: the organisation and planning of training, its intertwining with human resource management practices, the type of skill requirements that companies identify and the skills targeted by training and evaluations of the effects of training, particularly on business activity. The training practices of French companies stand out by virtue of the accumulation of significant values for all these indicators (cf. Box 1). 

Continuing vocational training is not subject to any specific organisation or planning in all European companies (this is the case for 52.5% of them on average). France is one of the countries that have the largest shares of companies with an individual or unit in charge of organising CVT or with a training plan or budget (56%). In other words, both large (96%) and small companies (56%) have clearly identified training as an element of their development strategies.

In Europe, 27% of companies are constantly assessing their future skill requirements. In France, this applies to 39% of them, a high share that is also observed in Finland, Sweden and Spain. Moreover, French companies link the majority of their skill requirements more specifically to particular jobs. More than half of them (55% compared with 43% on average across Europe) identify technical skills and those specific to an occupation as the ones that should take priority. 

In order to meet their future needs in terms of qualifications and skills, companies particularly favour the training option, whether their aim is to train employees already in post (90% in France, 64% in Europe) or to train new recruits specifically (62% in France, 43% in Europe) (cf. Box 1). This turns out to be particularly true in the case of small companies. The use of training is not as evident in all European companies, the commonest option, regardless of company size, being to recruit new employees with the appropriate skills (66%). 

The internal and external training courses funded by French companies are targeted predominantly at the skills required in production processes. Since 2005, it has invariably been technical and practical skills or those specific to particular jobs that have taken precedence on average across Europe (for 62% of companies). In France, the training effort focused on such skills is even more pronounced (67% for all French companies and 65% for small companies). Conversely, language skills were among the least cited by companies in 2020 (6% in France and in Europe in 2020), a clear decline compared with 2010 (18% in France and 17% in Europe in 2010). Since 1 January 2019 in France, only companies employing fewer than 50 people have been able to apply to their vocational training support agencies (OPCOs) for pooled funds to finance their skills development plans. As a result, larger companies have undoubtedly tightened up their training plans in order to concentrate on training useful to their own activities, while at the same time shifting the funding of training that could be paid for by employees themselves on to their personal training plans. The prominence of language courses in the training funded by these plans seems to testify to this development. 

Another indicator of the extent to which training has become an integral part of companies’ economic strategies is to be found in the attention paid to its effects. With regard to the four aspects of evaluation that can be identified using the survey data, French companies stand out clearly from their European counterparts. According to their declarations, they are much more likely to measure participant satisfaction (75% in France, 29.5 % in Europe), acquisition of the target skills (59 % in France, 29% in Europe), the performance of their newly trained employees (57% in France, 28% in Europe) and the impact of training on the economic performance of the departments concerned or of the company as a whole (42% in France, 21% in Europe). In France, this return on investment seems to be expected as much by small companies, which on average provide more hours of training for their employees (31 hours per employee trained in 2020), as by large companies (21 hours). On average across Europe as a whole, this relationship is reversed, with small companies offering an average of 20 hours per employee trained and large companies 24 hours. 

While training is used primarily to support companies’ economic strategies, how did they provide training in 2020 in France and in Europe at a time when they were impacted by an unprecedented exogenous shock in the shape of the Covid-19 pandemic?

A striking feature of companies’ practices in Europe is that, despite the health crisis, they maintained their training effort. Although the share of companies using internal and external training courses fell slightly compared with 2015, while remaining higher than in 2010, rates of access to training were maintained overall in Europe (42% in 2020 compared with 43% in 2015) and in France (47% in 2020 compared with 48% in 2015) [1]. However, it is important above all to note that training practices and methods changed in response to the health crisis. 

For the first time, companies were, on average, more likely to provide training for their employees in forms other than internal and external courses. Whatever their size, they changed their training methods: more than one small company in two used forms other than internal and external training courses. 

This was particularly true in France. Whereas the French model had historically been marked by the very pronounced predominance of internal and external training courses, with companies being little inclined to use on-the-job-training [2], the year 2020 seems to have marked a turning point. Even though they still lagged slightly behind, French companies drew close to those in Europe that make intensive use of on-the-job training. The change between 2015 and 2020 is striking: the share of French companies using this form of training rose by 15 percentage points to reach 39%, close to the European average (cf. Box 3). 

While it was not possible in many countries to put on training courses during certain periods of 2020, more flexible forms of training adapted to the needs of both employees and companies were espoused. The level of on-the-job training was maintained in those countries in which it was structurally already in widespread use (Sweden and Norway for example) and in others, such as France and Italy, this form of training helped companies to get round the impossibility of putting on training courses. 

This increased use of on-the-job training should perhaps be interpreted as the simplest way for firms to meet their immediate needs in a context of crisis by refocusing training on occupational skills. It seems less likely that this form of training was being used in order to open up training more widely to groups that had hitherto been excluded (notably employees with few if any qualifications and those in small companies), or to meet the retraining targets advocated by the European Commission. From 2021 onwards, as economic activity began to recover, the share of firms in France using on- the-job training returned to the level of 2015, testimony once again to their ability to adapt and not to change their practices permanently. Thus the end of the French model based on internal and external training courses does not yet seem to be on the agenda. 

As with on-the-job training, French companies were also lagging behind some of their European counterparts in their use of apprenticeships. The gap was largely closed in 2020. Whereas 33% of French companies were making use of apprenticeships in 2015, the share had risen to 49% in 2020 (on average across Europe the shares remained stable, reaching 32% in 2020) according to the CVTS survey. Small French companies followed the same trend, since 44% of them took on apprentices in 2020, compared with 29% on average across Europe. French companies stand out particularly by virtue of their motivations, which reveal the opportunistic nature of their practices in a context in which companies were being offered incentives to take on apprentices. In Europe, 90% of companies state that they take on apprentices in order to train them in the skills the companies require. The same applies to 85% of French companies, with small companies being no different from large ones. However, only 52% of companies in Europe acknowledge that they use apprentices’ productive capacities while at the same time allowing them to receive training. The proportion is considerably greater in France, where the corresponding figure is 71% of all companies (70% of small and 76% of large companies). These scant data seem to indicate that this increased use of apprenticeships is linked to the financial support granted to companies that take on apprentices.

Comparison of French companies’ responses with those collected in the other European countries highlights the fact that training there is called on primarily to fulfil companies’ productive and economic requirements and is therefore a factor in corporate strategies. Under pressure, French companies were quick to respond in 2020, demonstrating their adaptive capacities as they opted for forms of training that had been little used until then and benefited from the windfall effects of certain measures promoted by the 2018 act and the recovery plan. 

Analysis of the data from 2021 would seem to show that the changes in French companies’ practices were the result of a cyclical adaptation rather than structural changes. Thus the share of companies making use of on-the-job training declined significantly in 2021, returning to its pre-pandemic level (24.5% compared with 39% in 2020 and 23.5% in 2015). Rates of access to external and internal training courses, on the other hand, increased significantly (52% of employees compared with 47% in 2020 and et 48% in 2015), as did the average number of hours’ training per employee (13.6 hours compared with 10.7 in 2020), confirming that companies’ training effort varies with the economic cycle. 

Thus the training policies adopted by French companies seem to be oriented less towards securing their employees’ career trajectories than supporting their own growth and performance. This is corroborated by the results of the DEFIS surveys, which reveal a gap between employees’ aspirations with respect to training and companies’ recognition of those aspirations, particularly when the former’s desires for retraining do not coincide with the latter’s needs [3]. Above and beyond this observation, it is noteworthy that, year after year, about 30% of companies, mainly small ones, offer their employees absolutely no training at all.

[1] A. Checcaglini, I. Marion-Vernoux, M.-A. Lestrade, S. Rosa, « Comment les entreprises ont- elles formé en 2020 ? », Céreq Bref n°438-439, 2023 

[2] A. Checcaglini, I. Marion-Vernoux, « Regards comparatifs sur la formation en Europe : un plafond de verre du côté des entreprises françaises », Céreq Bref n°392, 2020. 

[3] F. Lefresne, E. Verdier (coord.), Le temps des mobilités et des reconversions professionnelles - Ce que nous enseignent les travaux du Céreq, Céreq Essentiel n°5, 2024.