Vocational training has seen a notable acceleration in France since the introduction of the CPF (personal training account) in 2018/2019. It allows employees and job seekers to benefit from professional training through acquired rights (in euros and no longer in hours) during their professional career, and above all to do it alone, through an online platform.
Thus, the consumption of professional training financed by the CPF increased between 2020 and 2021 from 1 million validated files to 2.1 million. The number of beneficiaries has gone from 850,000 people in 2020 to 1.64 million in 2021.
An undeniable success that presents certain disparities underlines a study by Caisse des Dépôts that analyzes regional differences.
Remember that it is this institution that directly remunerates the training companies. In almost three years (end of 2022), five million people have been trained at a total cost of seven billion euros, according to the CDC.
In terms of volume, unsurprisingly, it is the urban areas that have the highest utilization rates. But at the same time, it is in rural areas where training is more directly linked to the exercise of a certain profession, sums up the institution.
5.5% of workers in dense areas have used the CPF compared to 2.2% in very sparsely populated areas
In detail, “the rate of use of the CPF (by employed workers) is all the more important the higher the degree of density”: 5.5% in dense spaces in 2021, 3.6% in intermediate density spaces, 2, 9% in sparsely populated spaces and 2.2% in very sparsely populated spaces, we can read.
This finding is amplified when looking only at job applicants. “It is in the densest areas where job seekers are, in relation to their number, the most likely to mobilize their CPF rights (13.9% against 11% in intermediate areas and 10.6% in less dense areas).
“The increasing relationship between CPF consumption and density is also confirmed for all age groups. Thus, 7.2% of employed workers between the ages of 25 and 34 in dense areas mobilize their CPF rights, compared to only 3.1% of employed workers of the same age in very sparsely populated areas”, emphasizes Caisse des Depots.
Obviously, density is not the only variable that explains these differences. They are also analyzed through “the socioeconomic characteristics – age pyramid, employment rate, sectoral specialization of companies, etc. – of urban and rural areas (which) differ greatly and it is likely that these same characteristics also modify the needs resident training
And to add: “in total, the socioeconomic characteristics of the territories would explain 48% of the gap in the use of training between dense and very dispersed territories, and up to 61% of the gap between dispersed and very dispersed areas. less dense”.
But the most interesting thing about this study lies in the differences in the training courses followed. Therefore, they are “more directly linked to the exercise of a specific profession in rural areas”.
Driving license B, the star of training in urban areas
The study highlights, for example, that “the rate of recourse to the CPF to finance the B permit is more than ten times higher in dense spaces than in rural areas.”
In these areas, obtaining a driving license “occupies the first rank of training courses financed with CPF rights (19% of the total number of beneficiaries), the third in areas of intermediate density (7%) and, only, the ninth and tenth rank in sparsely and very sparsely populated areas (3% of beneficiaries).
Support for the creation and/or takeover of a company, language certification (Pipplet Flex), approval of the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) and skills assessment are the other four CPF training courses favored by assets in dense areas.
The study also points out that the training courses carried out in urban areas “are generally longer and, in relation to the training hour, more expensive than those carried out in rural areas” with prices ranging between 1,100 and the 1700 euros.
There are no opposite uses.
On the contrary, in sparsely and very sparsely populated areas, if the support for the creation and/or takeover of a company is at the forefront of the CPF training courses carried out by the workers, “the certification training courses more directly related to the exercise of a profession appear in higher ranks: training for the different CACES (Certificates of aptitude for safe driving in 6th grade), training in food hygiene in collective catering, driving license for heavy vehicles (categories C and CE), continuous training in the transport of goods, etc”.
What should we conclude? That in dense areas, employees and job seekers prefer training that is little or less related to a trade?
The Caisse des dépôts is not opposed to the two uses and endorses an analysis of the Dares: “this does not mean that the financing of the driving license by the CPF is not beneficial at a professional and social level. In fact, the beneficiaries of this type of training report having experienced favorable professional development more frequently than other MAP recipients and more easily attribute this favorable development to their training.
An evolution of the CPF that worries
It remains to be seen if the recent changes in the CPF will not alter both the volume of training courses consumed and their destinations. A modification adopted within the framework of the 2023 budget provides for the “participation of workers in the cost of a training action, a validation of experience acquired (VAE) or an evaluation of skills carried out within the framework of the CPF”.
“This participation may be proportional to the cost of the training, within the limit of a ceiling, or fixed at a flat rate. Jobseekers and workers whose employer finances part of this cost will be exempted” can -we read in Public-Service .fr
If the implementing decree has not yet been published, for supporters of the CPF, this change will be counterproductive. “It is a social error and an economic error,” the former Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud reacted on France Televisions.
“Who with modest means will be able to pay 50 or 100 euros for their training, knowing that they are already making the effort to train, many times outside working hours? in the head,” she asserts. And remember that 80% of the assets undergoing training are workers and employees.
Source: BFM TV
