The financial aid of 6,000 euros to support employers who recruit under apprenticeship contracts has been renewed in 2024, the Ministry of Labor announced on Saturday December 30 in a press release. “Year after year, the development of work-study programs has proven itself, legitimizing more than ever the objective of one million apprentices per year”declared the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, quoted in the press release.
This bonus concerns the hiring of an apprentice of any age or an employee under professionalization contract under 30 years old. It is granted unconditionally to companies with fewer than 250 employees. Larger companies are also eligible but under conditions, namely reaching a threshold of work-study contracts or contracts promoting professional integration in their workforce, by the end of December 2025.
More than a million apprentices at the end of October
According to figures from the Ministry of Employment, France had a total of 1,017,500 apprentices in secondary and higher education at the end of October 2023, an increase of 6.2% compared to the end of October 2022. At the end of October 2023, 780,200 apprenticeship contracts had started since the start of the year, an increase of 2.8% year-on-year. The government has set a target of one million contracts signed in 2027.
The growth in apprenticeships can be explained both by the 2018 reform, which notably liberalized the opening of training centers and extended apprenticeships to 26-29 year olds, as well as by hiring bonuses. . In mid-December, Parliament definitively adopted a text intended to promote a “Erasmus of learning” by facilitating the international mobility of work-study students.