Facilitating Youth's Access to Apprenticeships, and Encouraging Youth to Complete them in FrancePDF version
Youth underemployment, especially among disadvantaged populations, has the potential to create significant social unrest and perpetuate poverty. However, little is known about how best to help youth find jobs and smooth the school-to-work transition. One would-be tool for expanding the labor market opportunities is apprenticeship, a system by which new workers are given on-the-job vocational training, usually in exchange for continuing working after they acquire the necessary skills. Apprenticeships can make youth more attractive job candidates by providing them with necessary skills and experience. However, if youth tend to drop out of their apprenticeships before completion, the program may not be effective at increasing employment since the apprentice will not have gained the full set of skills needed to secure a future job.
In France, young people face many barriers to entering the job market, and finding a job is especially difficult for unskilled youth. The unemployment rate among people aged 15 to 24 is more than twice the national average, while that of unskilled youths is more than four times the national average. Apprenticeships, which are paid positions, are thought to make a job candidate more attractive, but 26 percent of all apprenticeship contracts are broken, with first-time apprentices breaking their contracts at an even higher 35 percent of the time.
CFA 13 Vents is an apprenticeship center in Tulle, France that provides support to all youth in the region interested in apprenticeships. Its services include a counselor to guide apprentices through the various stages of the apprenticeship and coordinate the efforts and resources of various supporting actors in the region.
The program offered through CFA 13 Vents provides a counselor to guide each youth through all steps of the apprenticeship and assists them in finding a job after its completion. The counselor helps the youth choose a craft, find an appropriate apprenticeship and find accommodations and transportation to and from work. During the apprenticeship, the counselor offers support on day-to-day job-related issues. Ultimately, the counselor works to make sure that the apprentice will have long-lasting employment, either at his or her company of apprenticeship or elsewhere.
One-half of youths participating in this evaluation will be randomly selected to receive the support of a counselor during their apprenticeship, while the other half will serve as a comparison group. The study will assess the professional outcomes of those involved by looking at the success of pre-apprenticeship training, uptake into apprenticeship, the rate of contract breaking, and the professional situation of the apprentices before, during and a few months after the end of the program.
Results forthcoming.
