A social victory, the right to vocational training has been subjected in recent years to a series of discreet but determined attacks, driven by an austerity agenda. --- The right to vocational training is one of the gains of the May 1968 mobilizations. For trade unions, it was meant to protect workers from changes in jobs and skills by allowing them to regularly finance training related to their current occupation or to a career change.
In 2017, the idea was co-opted with a liberal veneer in Emmanuel Macron's platform. He advocated the concept of "flexicurity": accepting increasingly precarious employment conditions, inevitably imposed by the sacrosanct laws of the market, in exchange for which the State would strengthen unemployment insurance and vocational training. Nine years later, we know what to expect from unemployment insurance, which has been regularly attacked by successive governments.Meanwhile, the dismantling of vocational training has certainly been more discreet. It underwent a major reform in 2013: the individual right to training (DIF) became the personal training account (CPF). The disappearance of the word "right" is not insignificant; it was soon accompanied by the creation of skills operators (OPCOs), tasked with supporting vocational training. Little by little, the social project was erased in favor of a completely liberal and employer-driven vision, solely serving the economy and capital.
Then, in 2020, the launch of the Mon Compte Formation platform allowed direct access to these rights and greatly facilitated their use. This resulted in more equitable access: participation in vocational training became more feminized and reached more non-managerial employees or those without qualifications[1]. But all this comes at a cost: between 2020 and 2024, the number of training courses completed tripled, and the cost to the state doubled compared to the 2015-2019 period.
While the current climate of budgetary austerity is one of unsustainable growth, this increase cannot continue. It faced its first attack in May 2024 with the introduction of a mandatory EUR100 co-payment for any use of the CPF (Personal Training Account): users now have to pay to access the rights for which they have contributed. 2026 marks another blow. The co-payment is raised to EUR150, and several limitations are put in place, including a EUR1,500 cap on funding per training course. It is now impossible to freely use one's contributions, regardless of the amount saved.
But the most glaring consequence of this dismantling of vocational training was embodied by Afdas this winter. The training insurance provider for performing arts professionals is the OPCO (Skills Operator) responsible for the entire cultural sector, and in particular for freelance performing arts workers. At the beginning of October, it suddenly announced that no training requests would be accepted in the last quarter of 2025. The reason given: the coffers are empty. In reality, more than 500,000 workers were deprived of access to their rights for three months[2]. Particularly hard hit by budget cuts in recent years, the cultural sector is the canary in the coal mine: it foreshadows the future destruction of the right to vocational training if we do not mobilize to defend it.
N. Bartosek (UCL Alsace)
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[1]Summary of the 2024 annual report on the management of Mon Compte Formation (My Training Account), Caisse des Dépôts.
[2]See "Afdas 'Where's the money?'", joint union statement, November 28, 2025.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Droit-a-la-formation-La-destruction-silencieuse-de-la-formation-professionnelle
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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