Colonie is looking for an animator urgently. Summer vacation is fast approaching but it could turn sour for some parents. For lack of arms, many centers and summer camps could well remain closed. Since the health crisis, the animation sector has indeed experienced a strong shortage of staff. “Currently, nearly 30,000 positions out of 350,000 are vacant nationally. So the risk of seeing stays canceled, or greatly reduced is very real, ”says David Cluzeau, general delegate of Hexopée, the main employer union in the sector. “Our members tell us of their difficulties in recruiting animators, but also cooks, service agents… And this for permanent positions or not! But without all these little people, it is impossible to welcome the children in good conditions, ”he warns.
Almost one post in ten would therefore not be filled. A level equivalent to that reached post-covid. In 2021, the survey conducted by Hexopée and the Youth and Popular Education Cooperation Fund (Fonjep) showed that four out of five structures were experiencing recruitment difficulties. And even if this proportion had slightly decreased in 2022 (76%), six out of ten employers affirmed that the difficulties had increased. “We are witnessing a perpetuation of these problems”, comments David Cluzeau. The fault is “tougher competition for the” best employer “between owners of campsites, holiday villages, camps, leisure centers…” and a deterioration in the image of the profession of animator, “deemed too trying, time-consuming and poorly paid”. To the point that “some leisure centers are even talking about remaining closed for the whole month of August, for lack of voluntary seasonal workers”, regrets the spokesperson for Hexopée.
Faced with the lack of arms which seems to be becoming a constant, the organizers have no choice but to adapt. “Everything is done to avoid a closure, even temporary”, explains Anne Carayon, general manager of the Youth Outdoors network, which campaigns for access for all to summer camps and leisure centers. “Since the pandemic, the offers offered have therefore changed somewhat,” she continues. “Leisure centers, for example, stop doing three-day mini-stays. The same goes for holiday camps, which are abandoning itinerant stays for fixed locations, which require far fewer supervisors”.
Even if the situation remains “tense”, these small arrangements make it “acceptable and less serious than at the end of covid”, reassures Anne Carayon. At least on the side of occasional animators, that is to say those for whom animation is not a career. “Registrations for the Bafa, the certificate of aptitude for the functions of a facilitator, have for example returned to their pre-health crisis level. These new trainees will ensure the renewal of positions in the coming years, ”she says. The deficit of non-professional staff should therefore be reduced soon. For the time being, “recruitment difficulties in this branch of entertainment remain confined to specific and specialized positions, such as camp director or lifeguard”.
A problem remains. That of attracting more professional animators. Despite the reassessment of wages, of about 10% according to Hexopée, the sector still suffers from its degraded image. “In times of inflation, animation attracts less and less, because people seek better paid and more stable jobs first,” says David Cluzeau. This is why Hexopée is campaigning for preparation time to be considered as effective working time. “This would lead to a salary increase of around 15%,” says the Hexopée spokesperson, thus implying an increase in the cost of stays. “If this increase is put on the backs of families, there is a big risk of seeing a drop in requests. It would rather be necessary to find a solution on the side of the Caisse Nationale des Allocations Familiales, which already partially finances the stays”.
So to put an end to the slow decay of summer camps, “it is urgent to restore the image of the host”, punches Anne Carayon. “There is a huge lack of recognition of this profession. The animator does not do childcare, he has a very strong educational role”. Most vocations being aroused by an experience of youth, “fewer children today means fewer animators tomorrow”, she regrets. However, according to the Department of Youth, Popular Education and Associative Life (DJEPVA), in 2016, summer camps only welcomed 800,000 children, compared to more than one million in 2007, two million in the early 1980s and 4 million in the 1960s.1
