PRESS RELEASE
28 January 2025
Public thematic report
EVALUATION OF THE SKILLS INVESTMENT PLAN
(PIC)
In September 2017, in a report commissioned by the Prime Minister, economist Jean Pisani-
Ferry considered that France was suffering from a number of structural weaknesses,
including a lack of skills among its working population. He felt that this was preventing us
from meeting the major economic challenges of the future, particularly the digital and
ecological transitions. In his view, the country needed to make its economy more
competitive in order to ensure future growth. He recommended a
Grand Plan
d'Investissement
(Major Investment Plan - GPI)
and proposed that one of its four priorities,
the
Plan d’investissement dans les compétences
(Skills Investment Plan - PIC), with a budget
of nearly €15bn, should be used to "build a skills
-based society" based on the concept of
human capital. According to this principle, training is a
continuum
to be enriched throughout
life. The aim of the plan was to initiate a long-term reform designed to link and even
integrate training and employment policies. From a more short-term point of view, it was
also intended to provide individualised support for two million young people and long-term
jobseekers with few or no qualifications, through training leading to certifications and
qualifications. The evaluation was conducted to examine whether the Skills Investment Plan
(2018 - 2023) has transformed the training system and whether its target audiences have
been reached.
"
Building a skills-based society
": a goal without a tomorrow
The evaluation carried out by the financial jurisdictions shows that the PIC's ambition of
structural transformation was immediately abandoned. In the absence of an interministerial
budgetary framework and the definition of precise objectives and target groups, the PIC has
become a funding plan for vocational training for people who are excluded from the workforce,
similar to previous plans and supported by the Ministry of Labour alone, which has been
allocated €13.8 billion out of a total of €14.6 billion.
The latter used half of its appropriations to
preserve pre-existing statutory schemes and only financed a handful of new national schemes.
The other half of the appropriations financed a regional component focusing on support for
jobseekers, which is the responsibility of the regions as a whole, through the signing of
pactes
régionaux d’investissement dans les compétences
(regional skills investment pacts - Pric). These
are simply a more complete reworking of the training plan deployed in 2016-2017, known as
the "500,000 Plan". The PIC has therefore failed to live up to the Pisani-Ferry report's ambition
to transform the training system and has not been an investment in sustainable change. As a
result, France's economic indicators are still lagging behind those of its best-performing
neighbours.
In the absence of transformation, modernising support through training for people excluded
from the workforce
The evaluation of the PIC shows that the unprecedented volume of funding mobilised has
nonetheless made it possible to modernise and individualise the methods used to support
people who have been excluded from the workforce. This innovation has also led to a change
in professional practices: the approach of employment and training advisers and trainers,
previously focused on getting people back to work quickly through short courses, has begun to
incorporate the need to encourage more structured and adapted career paths, which can lead
to more sustainable employment. In view of the budgetary resources it was mobilising, the
State could, within the Pric framework, have guided the training policies of the regions and set
them objectives for priority target groups. However, it confined itself to the role of funder,
without getting fully involved in strategic management, especially as its decentralised services
suffered from a lack of resources.
Reaching target audiences: results still uncertain and fragile
The roll-out of the
Skills Investment Plan
alone does not explain the increase in training
enrolments, which is more largely due to the autonomous CPF used by jobseekers outside the
PIC. There has been a substitution effect between the CPF and the training previously provided
by France Travail. The proliferation of schemes has also led to regional competition, which is
detrimental to coherent implementation
.
The national objectives of the PIC were defined in an
imprecise manner, with no clear regional breakdown, and the monitoring of indicators
remained disparate and inadequate. No mass enrolments were identified as being attributable
to the PIC, and regional disparities as well as heterogeneity according to training category were
noted. The proportion of people with fewer qualifications accessing training remains stable at
the end of this scheme. Long-term jobseekers and RSA recipients saw their access to training
increase, but there was no demonstrated link with the PIC. Despite individualised and enhanced
support, the PIC has not overcome all the structural obstacles to building training pathways, and
the emphasis on a rapid return to employment remains very prevalent.
Read the report
PRESS CONTACT
Julie Poissier
■
Communications Director
■
T
+33 (0)6 87 36 52 21
■
julie.poissier@ccomptes.fr