An “obstacle course”, according to the SNC association

The training of job seekers is an “obstacle course”, estimated the association Solidarités nouvelles face au unemployment (SNC), this Tuesday, in its annual report, which recommended several avenues for improvement, such as of Pôle emploi the “key interlocutor” or to develop retraining.

Despite the entry into training of 935,000 job seekers last year, a figure that has been increasing for several years, the situation is complex, according to the association, created in 1985, which supports “job seekers” throughout. France.

“Three great difficulties”

“When you are looking for a job, you have to fight to have access to vocational training,” said Gilles de Labarre, president of SNC, during a morning of discussions around the report. The fruit of 18 months’ work, it has the “singularity” of relying on feedback from the field, he explained. The document is thus fed by testimonies of unemployed people like that of Marie, 50, who wanted to do a master’s degree specializing in e-commerce and found herself having to live on 500 euros per month, failing to validate her diploma, “Exhausted”. Or that of Laurent, 55, who says he was told by Pôle emploi that “seniors are not a priority for obtaining funding”.

While the government intends to strengthen the training of job seekers, especially long-term job seekers, and the Prime Minister is due to present a new skills investment plan shortly, the report’s authors highlighted “three major difficulties ”: the complexity of the system with its cohort of actors (Pôle emploi, training organizations, regional councils, etc.), the subject of financing training and ancillary costs (transport, meals, accommodation) and the fate of those most distant from employment, which require “more specific measures”.

Abandonments and non-recourse

Job seekers are often faced with “scattered” information and in “a fog of uncertainties” causing abandonment and non-recourse, underlined one of the members of the working group. In February 2021, 13% of job seekers were taking training, against 29% for people in employment, says the association.

A third of job seekers enter training on prescription from Pôle Emploi and two-thirds on their own initiative, SNC believes. To improve the situation, the report suggests in particular simplifying the procedures for accessing training by making Pôle emploi a “key resource”, responsible for directing towards the “most relevant” training courses, which must be listed. He also pleads for guaranteeing remuneration and funding for training or even creating a specific device for the retraining of job seekers, a need further reinforced by the pandemic, according to SNC.