training in private security professions in preparation for the Games led to 10,200 hires

Little by little, the State is getting closer to the objectives it has set for itself in terms of supporting the private security sector in view of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. To date, for the Ile-de-France region alone, 16,200 people have followed training to practice the profession of private security agent and 10,200 people have been hired by companies in this sector, facing a labor shortage even before having to meet the needs of the Games organizers.

The goal of the public authorities is, in conjunction with France Travail (formerly Pôle emploi), to train 28,000 people, including 20,000 in Ile-de-France, and to hire 15,000. Knowing that securing the sites Olympics will require ensuring on average 18,000 “day positions” (which can represent more than 18,000 people if the duration of the position to be held exceeds 12 hours of service), with peaks at 24,000, as recalled by the interministerial delegate to the JOP (Dijop), Michel Cadot, on January 17 in front of the senators. The needs for the Paralympic Games are estimated at 8,000 positions per day on average and 13,000 for the busiest days.

In the Ile-de-France region alone, 46 million euros of public money have been mobilized to support, since autumn 2022, these training courses which, in part, are carried out in a reduced format of three weeks (106 hours instead of the usual 176 to 300 hours), put in place specifically for the Games.

Call for professional baccalaureates, BTS and… retirees

This program will continue until the beginning of July in order to allow students who wish to do so to follow training after their exams, and before the Games. Some 1,200 students have already been trained.

In order to achieve their objectives, in terms of the number of people trained and the number of people hired, the public authorities are also considering soliciting vocational baccalaureate and BTS students. As well as those who had registered to be among the 45,000 “volunteers” (volunteers) during the Games, but who were not selected by Paris 2024.

Furthermore, the National Old Age Insurance Fund and France Travail launched an information campaign for retirees at the end of January. “The objective is to inform certain retirees of the opportunity to benefit, if they wish, from funding for training to carry out event security missions during the Games”explained to AFP on January 31, the interministerial delegation to the Games, according to which “around 186,000 retirees from Ile-de-France may be affected”.

“The ramp-up” of the support plan for the private security sector “ is effective, it will provide a resource”, Michel Cadot explained to senators in mid-January. But he also warned: “ Will this resource be allocated as a priority to Games contracts, even though there will be requests for other events? This is not completely assured today. »

Paris 2024, which has just completed its third wave of private security markets, had assured, before the closing of this call for tenders, that it had secured 85% of its needs contractually, which did not mean that he had the complete assurance of having the corresponding “arms”.

Asked about the hypothesis of a mobilization of the reserves of the army, the police and the gendarmerie to compensate for a lack of personnel from private security companies, Michel Cadot replied that “the objective is to limit this recourse to a minimum”. While the Court of Auditors had asked them to clarify this point no later than October 2023, the public authorities have until now postponed any decision on the matter, claiming to want to complete their support plan for the health sector. private security.