Enedis accelerates hiring and apprenticeships

"We are growing in activity and we are going to recruit more strongly than what we have done in previous years," Nicolas Marchand, director of human resources at Enedis, told AFP.

The group employs 38.000 people: the "men in blue" who maintain the power lines of 37 million customers in France. In total, 1,4 million kilometers of lines.

It plans to recruit this year 1.600 people on permanent contracts and 1.300 work-study students, from the professional baccalaureate to the engineer through the BTS (mention "energy professions"), indicated Mr. Marchand.

The total number of employees should thus increase by around a thousand at the end of 2023, “not far from 39.000”, taking into account the natural departures within the group, he calculates.

Be a real turning point. The employment curve at Enedis had been on a downward trend since 2016. It started to reverse in 2022.

Because electricity must eventually replace other sources of fossil energy that contribute to global warming.

The development of renewable energies, solar or wind, "is done at 90% on the distribution network", explains the manager: "When you install photovoltaic panels, you have to connect them to the network. This is the work of Enedis , manage the injections of electricity, the electrons sent to the network, in order to then be able to redistribute them".

A large part of the development of activity at Enedis also relates to "the electrification of uses". For example, the connection of charging stations for electric vehicles.

While students and parents are in the throes of school guidance in February and March, Enedis has launched a campaign on social networks to explain its needs in its 12 regional basins.

The group suffers like a large part of the industry from a lack of image among young people, although its employees are applauded each time they restore the network after a storm.

Enedis also plans to work with National Education to promote its professions from the fifth grade.

RTE, the operator that manages the high voltage lines, has also almost doubled its rate of recruitment. The company, which employed 2022 people at the end of 9.500, intends to recruit 700 new employees in 2023, against 400 usually, it announced recently.