Finding a work-study placement has become an uphill battle.

"I have finally found a work-study placement, after two years of searching. For two years, I had to pay the school's tuition fees. And take out a bank loan to finance it," explains Mohamed, a third-year computer science student at EPSI in Montpellier - 7.500 euros per year in initial training.

For students in work-study programs, state-recognized training courses are financed by the employer - or by skills operators (Opco) in the case of small businesses.

"That's all I did. I sent out 30-40 applications a day. I had a few interviews. Often, I was told that I didn't have enough experience," continues Mohamed, who says he "lost 13 kilos in a year" and suffered from OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder).

Charlotte Angevin, 22, a first-year master's student in design in Paris, took more than six months to find a work-study placement. "Without a work-study placement, I would have had to drop out of school," which costs around 5.000 euros per year, she says.

"I had to send more than 600 emails, and I also applied directly on LinkedIn," explains the student who was initially looking in "high-end design", but decided to broaden her search before finally finding a position with a cabinetmaker.

"Out of 26 in my class a month ago, only about ten had found an apprenticeship." By mid-November, half the group was still looking.

Since the start of the school year in September, Ethan, 15, in CAP cuisine in Nantes, has also noticed that "there were still quite a few people looking for work", in a sector that relies heavily on apprenticeships.

He was chosen over three competitors in a restaurant where he had previously completed an internship because he was "a little better" than the others, according to this student at the Daniel Brottier center for apprentices in Auteuil, near Nantes.

"Beating the apprentices"

"We received many more requests from young people who were looking for contracts for this 2025 academic year," notes Baptiste Martin, president of the National Association of Apprentices of France (Anaf), a network of former apprentices who help those who are looking.

According to provisional figures for salaried employment published by INSEE (National Institute of Statistics) in early November, two-thirds of the approximately 60.000 jobs lost in France in the third quarter were due to the decline in apprenticeships.

For young people who can't find a job, "it's serious because it will put them in a very difficult position for the rest of their professional career," worries Baptiste Martin.

In 2025, the aid for hiring an apprentice, previously 6.000 euros, was reduced to 5.000 for SMEs with fewer than 250 employees and to 2.000 euros for larger companies.

Taking advantage of public aid, the number of apprentices in France had increased from 430.000 in 2017 to more than one million in 2023, while apprenticeships have massively opened up to higher education students and the service sector.

While places are now harder to find, they have also become less lucrative for apprentices, the best of whom now have to pay social security contributions, which lowers their net salary.

"I got my first paycheck in September and I saw that it was 200 euros less than I expected, I didn't understand why," says Aurélien, 23, who has started his third year of apprenticeship in the kitchen at the luxury Cheval Blanc hotel, located on the 7th floor of the Samaritaine in the center of Paris.

"After the hospitals, after the teachers, let's go after the apprentices, it's true that's where we'll make a lot of money, that's where we'll finance the rearmament of France," he says ironically.

In its initial version, the government's draft budget planned to completely abolish the exemption from social security contributions for apprentices, before MPs reinstated it - for now.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.