Public transport sector aims to recruit and train around 100.000 people by 2030

The Union of Public and Rail Transport (UTPF) announced on Thursday, September 12, the launch of a three-year program to train and recruit around 100.000 people in public transport professions by 2030 in order to meet the growing needs of a sector affected by recruitment tensions.

The program, called "Transformers", "is part of the post-covid context of the subject of tensions in employment with the strong awareness of our profession", explained the head of the UTPF, Marie-Ange Debon.

The employers' federation predicts between 82.000 and 106.000 recruitments by 2030, including between 44.000 and 50.000 in driving professions.

The workforce covered by the UTPF currently represents around 260.000 people, according to Marie-Ange Debon.

To develop its initiative, improve the attractiveness of the professions and attract students to training courses, the UTPF will invest 12 million euros, 8 million of which will be provided by the State as part of the "France 2030" program.

"We have very strong needs that require that training be strengthened and developed," insisted Marie-Ange Debon. The UTPF also works with publishers of school textbooks so that public transport appears more in them, because "the image of public transport must be present very early in the imagination of young people in middle school," believes Ms. Debon.

Public transport is affected by the ageing of its employees since in urban transport, "17,3% of the workforce is between 55 and 59 years old", assures the UTPF.

The assessment of a need for around 100.000 recruitments by the end of the decade does not include "an extraordinary supply shock in our forecasts, otherwise our estimate would have been well above", stressed Marie-Ange Debon.

The president of the UTPF, who is also CEO of the public transport group Keolis, is campaigning for a "supply shock" in public transport to reduce the carbon impact of the transport sector in France.