As the Conseil en Evolution Professionnelle* (CEP – career development advice) service celebrates its 10th anniversary, and a new four-year contract has just been awarded to regional operators, France Compétences organized a webinar on June 12 to take stock of the system and outline its main prospects.
KYU, which has been commissioned to carry out audits of the service between 2020 and 2023, has developed in-depth knowledge of the system and its territorial coverage, and is closely monitoring these developments.
*NB – The Conseil en évolution professionnelle is a confidential, personalised public service. Covered at 100%, it is aimed at all employees and self-employed workers who wish to take stock of their professional situation.
Four years after the official launch, a very positive outlook
France Compétences, in charge of organizing and financing the system since 2018, has appointed 18 operators to deliver the service to employees and self-employed people in all French regions. Despite the scale of the challenges posed by its deployment, which took place just before the start of the covid crisis, the CEP’s track record is deemed successful, with:
- Good territorial coverage (over 700 sites and offices in mainland France and in the French overseas departments and territories);
Complementarity with skills development plans;
- High demand (575,000 beneficiaries overall, with a record of 176,000 reached in 2023) and steady growth (+18% each year since the launch);
- A high level of satisfaction among beneficiaries, who widely praise its quality (93%) and usefulness (87%).
Renewed ambitions
The start of 2024 marks a new phase in the deployment of the CEP, whose identity has been slightly updated to make it easier for beneficiaries to identify the service and the organizations providing it. So, while the selected providers are broadly the same as in 2019, the “Mon CEP” service is now delivered under the ‘Avenir Actifs’ brand, with a single website for all service operators in all French regions.
Two issues remain central: the continued development of CEP recourse, and the ongoing guarantee of its quality and usefulness for beneficiaries. In addition, Geoffroy de Vitry, High Commissioner for Vocational Education and Training, emphasizes the role that the CEP can play as the “backbone of public support”, complementing other public or even private schemes. It can also be a potential lever for the promotion of short-staffed jobs and sectors. In this respect, partnerships between France Compétences and Avenir Actifs operators are essential, and were one of the main themes of the webinar.
France compétences has announced a shift in its posture towards the CEP, with reinforced governance to improve unified management of the service, facilitate cooperation between operators and with their partners, and play a more prominent role in the French orientation-employment-training landscape.
Strengthening partnerships at national and local level, a priority for service development and fluidity
The webinar highlighted the richness of the CEP partner network, which is essential for promoting the scheme. Partner organizations may direct potential beneficiaries to the right operators, or promote sectors with the greatest skills shortages locally. Although the partners vary from region to region, depending on the opportunities that arose locally, key contacts include the Regions, OPCOs, CREFOPs, DREETS, Carif-Oref, local missions, Agefiph, APEC, Transitions Pro associations, as well as trade unions and employers’ organizations.
The importance of linking the CEP service with France Travail was also stressed. One of the objectives of Pôle Emploi’s reform is to make the process as fluid as possible for public service beneficiaries, notably by centralizing information. Indeed, providing the same information several times to different contacts can be discouraging, and prevent some beneficiaries from seeing their projects through to the end.
Finally, companies are viewed as another interesting lever for developing the use of the CEP. At present, few of them promote the service among their staff, as they are wary of losing employees at a time of high pressure on the job market. Nevertheless, the APEC and the OPCOs in particular are now keen to convince companies of the benefits of using this scheme, which offers a number of advantages for them:
- Complementarity with skills development plans;
- Support for social dialogue;
- Strengthening of employer brand / CSR approach.
During the webinar, several companies who had invited a CEP advisor for their employees gave testimonials, explaining that this approach had been very positively received by employees. Not all CEP beneficiaries are destined to change company or profession; this support also enables them to reflect on possible developments and prospects in their current positions.
Other long-term prospects to monitor
Already ambitious, these reaffirmed objectives for the development and fluidity of the CEP will be monitored alongside other key projects, in particular the VAE reform and the Skills Passport developed by the Caisse des Dépôts. Other longer-term ideas under consideration include making the CEP compulsory for certain groups and/or promoting it more proactively among groups who are currently under-represented among beneficiaries (blue-collar workers, men, etc.).
Key figures
- 575,000 beneficiaries since 2020, among which 62% are women and 72% are employees
- 92% satisfaction level among beneficiaries
- 700 active sites
- 3 out of 4 beneficiaries employed in companies with fewer than 50 employees, mainly in the following sectors: health, social action, commerce, manufacturing industry
