On the Inclusive Performance of Apprenticeship Within the French Vet System and the Current Reform of Its Governance and Related Institutional Setting

Apprenticeship constitutes institutionally the second main component of the French initial vocational education and training (IVET). It is a dual system based on an alternation between on-the-job training within a company and off-the-job training within an apprenticeship training centre. Although apprenticeship is observed to be the most performing IVET instruments in terms of its contribution to vocational inclusion and effective access to the labour market, its future further development remains hindered by some structural and functioning weaknesses (Brunet, 2018; Marchal, 2019a, 2019b; Pesonel, 2018). In this connection, the implementation of a major related reform integrating within the VET reform Act of  the 5^th September 2018, was launched at the beginning of 2019.  This paper is an analytical investigation into the functioning and performance of apprenticeship including the recently undertaken institutional and governance reform within the perspectives of its future development. The adopted investigation method is primarily based on scientific desk research and available data, documentation and performance evaluation studies and reports published by the ministries of education and labour, completed by a set of semi-structured interviews conducted with the representatives of involved stakeholders. One of the main outcomes of this research investigation confirms that apprenticeship is the most inclusive IVET component within the labour market as, on average, 72% of apprentices find jobs (56% on permanent employment contracts) within a seven-month-period following the completion of their apprenticeship in 2017, compared to only 51% of the school-based IVET graduates. This performance is expected to improve in the future following the implementation of the recently undertaken apprenticeship reform.