As the summer holidays approach, there is still a lack of facilitators in summer camps and leisure centers. Because the sector experiences persistent recruitment difficulties: nationwide, 30,000 supervisory positions remain vacant today, according to an estimate by the professional organization Hexopée, cited by the parisian. “Although the situation has improved compared to post-Covid, it is still complicated,” confirms Sabine Bonnaud, general delegate of the Unosel professional association.
In a survey carried out in September-October 2022 by Hexopée and the Cooperation Fund for Youth and Popular Education (Fonjep), 76.1% of the structures in the animation sector declared having recruitment difficulties, compared to 80 .5% in 2021, 61% said they had increased compared to the previous year. Six out of ten organizations even assured that these difficulties could have consequences for their services, citing a limitation in the number of registrations, a reduction in the number of activities or stays or even cancellations.
€35.34 per day
The health crisis “has created a hole” that is gradually shrinking, explains Anne Carayon, general director of the Youth Outdoors network. The training of new young animators has been interrupted by the successive lockdowns: only 31,000 Bafa were issued in 2020, 28% less than the previous year. In 2022, the figure rose to just over 46,000 new BAFAs, boosted by the exceptional aid of 200 euros put in place by the government, but it was still a long way from the 2000s when we far exceeded 50,000 new diplomas per year.
Beyond the health crisis, the sector is facing structural difficulties in hiring its supervisors. The salary is often cited as one of the possible explanations: the educational commitment contract (CEE), which governs the profession of occasional animator, provides for a minimum salary of 35.34 euros gross per day, or 494.76 euros for two weeks. Without forgetting that the training to obtain the Bafa costs between 500 and 1000 euros for the future young animator, who will have to work for several weeks to be able to amortize the cost.
“Revalue” the profession
But in the opinion of professionals in the sector, salary is far from being the motivation for young people who get involved in animation: it is above all because of the environment, professional experience and teamwork that you want to become an animator. To regain its attractiveness, it is necessary to “revalue” the profession, asks Anne Carayon. “Being a facilitator is not doing daycare, it is transmitting values to the children, opening up the field of possibilities for them”, she believes. In the meantime, to make up the shortfall immediately, the profession has been opened up to 16-year-olds.
Above all, the sector points the finger at the drop in attendance. The number of children in summer camps continues to decline year on year: a government report counted just 1.4 million children in 2021, compared with 4 million in the 1960s. Entertainers very often attended summer camps and leisure centers when they were children, and now they want to transmit what they have experienced. “It’s not a summer job like any other,” says Benoît Fontaine.
Source: BFM TV
