12.1. Introduction

I did not have the pleasure of taking advantage of “work-linked training” for my studies. Therefore I had to “learn” knowledge and skills through books and, despite the teachers’ overly standard and theoretical efforts, I was not able to discover any “poetry” in mathematics, which created a serious barrier for me as I pursued my studies. My consolation was to be decorated with academic prizes anyway. And for someone who had to repeat a school year, that’s not nothing!

I now know from experience that an “apprenticeship” would have helped me to understand that the effort to produce with the encouragement (one would say coaching) of the manager would have stimulated me, making it easier to see the interest of studying by projecting myself into my own professional future.

12.2. Apprenticeships: multiple realities

The French term for apprenticeship – apprentissage – is a beautiful word! Full of meaning. It covers many realities that are essential to the development of humanity, our construction and the acquisition of a critical sense. It constitutes learning about the world, others, life and yourself by learning knowledge and skills.

But this generic term also applies to education and the transmission of knowledge to schoolchildren and students. It is then a question of organizing periods in school and in companies. This is in order to apply and consolidate knowledge from books to the realities of practices in the field.

It constitutes a way of going from book to hand, and from hand to book.

As a member of the CCIs (the Chamber of Commerce and Industry) in charge of the management of consular, infra- and post-baccalaureate schools, which overwhelmingly practice work-linked training, I have seen the validity of this approach, which is confirmed to be:

• – excellent, given the success in exams at all levels (65–90%);
• – effective, as demonstrated by the professional integration rate seven months after receiving the diploma (70–90%);
• – demanding, because the pupil/apprentice is a student like any other, but he or she must also fulfill his or her role as an employee in the company.

The benefit he or she derives from it is obvious because he or she at acquires at the same time knowledge, know-how and essential interpersonal skills.

These qualities are highly valued by employers. Intellectual potential and knowledge are translated into “skills”, which is what the employer demands first and foremost. It remains for the young person to “make a difference” through his or her curiosity, originality, culture and, later, involvement.

I know that for some post-1968 “educators”, we must not pass on knowledge to children, but ensure that they discover and reveal for themselves.

This “self-learning” seems to me to be reserved for a few very mature minds, and risks delaying the development of a “critical sense” and of a scale of values (even temporarily). While those who make the effort to learn from the experiences and knowledge of “knowledgeable people” will develop a critical mind more quickly.

Having had to manage consular training institutions through an apprenticeship, but having also participated in the councils of three universities, I was able to see that it would be appropriate to find another term for higher education training (bac +2, 3 or 5 years). The term “apprenticeship” is not only generic, but also connoted trades (catering, construction, hairdressing, etc.) and, as a result, is too restrictive, with its “infra-box” image being sometimes synonymous with no choice for young people or families.

12.3. Apprenticeships in the higher education system

Who is aware of the possibility of continuing their path through an apprenticeship in French higher education?

Do we know that we can graduate from ESSEC as apprentices?

ESSEC is proud to have been the first of the French Grandes Écoles to open such a pathway through the apprenticeship contract (1993). Since then, you have been able to graduate from many other schools that have access via apprenticeships, such as Centrale Paris, Supélec, ESCP Europe, ISIPCA and SUP de Vente.

Today, apprentices represent 15% of students at the Conférence des Grandes Écoles (210 schools). The 2025 target is 25%.

However, if ESSEC has opened the way to higher education, it did not invent this training pathway. It is medicine courses that have always integrated it into curricula in the form of “internships”. In recent years, it was intended for the best students, who, through competitions, confirmed knowledge learned from books through practical experience. This is very reassuring for patients.

This reality should reassure families and also provide them with financial relief for two years, over the five years of study.

So, should we find another name? This should be part of the ongoing reform, with the legal status of the contract between the student, the school and the company.

On this occasion, the “purpose” of an apprenticeship should be reaffirmed and stay in clear view: it is a means of “training”. Even if there is a “collateral benefit” in social terms, it would be appropriate for politicians not to want to use it as a kind of Swiss army knife to solve all social problems.

We are pleased to note a certain recovery in the number of apprenticeship contracts signed in September 2018: 420,000, 32.5% of which were in higher education.

This represents 7% of young people, but, if we compare France to other countries, in Germany it would account for 15% of the young population. As for Great Britain, the number increased from 400,000 to 800,000 apprentices between 2010 and 2015! This was in particular thanks to the opening of the pathway to higher education.

I remember receiving a ministerial delegation that wanted to know what France was doing for apprenticeships in higher education. It was in 2010, and I opened our international perfume school ISIPCA in Versailles for them as a very good example. I think they were convinced.

You will have understood that my commitment to the development of apprenticeship training, and particularly to higher education, dates back to my election to the Chambers of Commerce of Versailles and Paris Île-de-France in 2001. This is in addition to my involvement in the management of ESSEC, as well as in the 23 consular schools in Île-de-France, with very many partnerships built with other very fine schools and universities.

In this regard, I have very fond memories and pride of having participated in the creation of a CFA with the University of Versailles UVSQ and the CCIV: the CFA D’Alembert. The latter was in response to an invitation from political bodies that demanded 20% apprenticeships in universities. We are almost there.

Another great memory is to have succeeded in convincing the Director General of the Ecole centrale to introduce an apprenticeship pathway. And so it was that on September 12, 2012, I had the pleasure of awarding the first diplomas to the new apprentices of the Ecole centrale, in the presence of the Minister of Higher Education and Research and the dean of the school.

The story began when the boss of Areva (the French nuclear body) complained to the Director of Ecole centrale that her graduates seemed to come from the same mold, and applied standardized solutions to problems that required a certain imagination and a variety of reflections. As I was trying to interest the principal in the pathway through an apprenticeship, I suggested that a certain variety of admissions training should result in a variety of personalities at the end of school!

As a result, approximately 30 apprentices from the CFA de Paris VI have been studying at Centrale Paris in their second year since 2012, every year.

I am aware that the road ahead has yet to be consolidated. It is hoped that the ongoing reform will provide a new impetus.

Chapter written by Bruno BOUNIOL.