“I sent more than 100 applications, I spent my whole summer there, I’m about to leave.” Gabriella, 20, begins to lose hope of finding an alternation as a commercial assistant. The student has been looking for relentlessly since March and still has no answer.
Like her, in mid -September, many students meet without a learning contract. On LinkedIn, candidates publish their CVS and desperate calls are multiplying. “I also call companies, I move, I do everything I can to find, without success,” says Katline, looking for an alternation in digital marketing.
-65,000 study publications for the end of the year
The reason? A decrease in state aid for learning contracts. In 2025, they increased from 6,000 to 2,000 euros for large companies and 5,000 euros for small businesses (less than 250 employees). A “mandatory participation” of companies of 750 euros for BAC+3 and more apprentices has also been implemented.
Measures that are not pain for employment. According to Insee, approximately 65,000 labor students should disappear for a period of six months, for the end of the year, due to the fall of public support.
A trend that is confirmed on the site of Bob Liters. As of January, learning ads had begun to decrease.
SME particularly affected
Faced with this reduction in offers, have certain sectors been saved? “Large groups continue to hire work study students,” says Eric Gras. “Some have made several years agreements with schools. This is now part of their long -term strategy. They have made work one of the components in their own right of their recruitment, especially for sellers or management.”
On the contrary, the fall is more significant for small businesses. “For SMEs, Vse, artisans, even if the fall in aid is only 1,000 euros, in a small cash, it feels immediately,” said Eric Gras, who points out that the marketing, accounting, communication and construction sectors are particularly affected.
An observation corroborated by the Jobteaser site specialized in the search for internships, alternations and first works. If the movement seems to start on the side of large companies, it is much more complicated for the smallest. Between March and July 2025, SMEs published 85% less offers on the platform compared to the same period in 2024, without reports observed about internships or first works.
Less good professional integration and greater unemployment risks
On the site, the general volume of published alternative offers has decreased by 22% between May and July. “Companies, and more particularly SMEs, face an unstable political situation and an unfavorable economic climate in 2025. In this context, the decrease in public aid comes to further reduce its recruitment ambitions on alternation and push a good number to a waiting position, and see the position”, Judge Adrien Ledoux, CEO and founder of Jobteaser.
“We know that the quality of the professional integration of young people has a significant impact on their risk of unemployment and their professional trip,” says Adrien Ledoux.
Given this reduction in offers, demand is not weakened (+7% compared to last year according to Jobteaser). Consequently, the number of supply applications increased by 18%, illustrating a growing imbalance in the market.
Students without work -Study and, therefore, without training
In this context, stress increases among students. “In my class, only three of every 25 people were found, we are all very afraid,” says Gabriella. The bets are high because alternating, the company also pays the registration fees.
“I will not be able to pay the 8,000 euros that the school asked for, so if I cannot discover that I will do a sabbatical year and do a small job,” she says.
Since the Government implemented learning aid, new schools have been created, with an economic model based exclusively on alternation, and teachings are sometimes dispensed exclusively from distance. For all students who have been admitted in these schools, not finding an employer amounts to having to abandon training.
According to him, it will be necessary to monitor the decisions of the future government, because a new reduction in aid is not excluded. He concludes: “We saw that a first decrease already had consequences, so we are waiting to see what sauce we are going to eat.”
Source: BFM TV
