The wave continues to grow. The recruitment difficulties experienced by the animation sector seem far from being resolved. Before the summer, nearly 30,000 positions out of 350,000 were unfilled. With the holidays over, it is time to take stock for those involved in popular education. But their annual barometer, which Le Figaro reveals exclusively, does not reveal any significant improvement in the situation. The observation is clear: recruitment difficulties persist. Like last year, more than seven out of ten employers are facing a labor shortage. To the point that the employers’ federation Hexopée and the Youth and Popular Education Cooperation Fund (Fonjep), co-authors of the study, are jointly asking for a helping hand from the State.
Conducted among 1,701 structures in the popular education sector last September, the 2023 edition “shows a relative stabilization of difficulties in 2022, 76.1% of respondents declared having recruitment difficulties, they are 72.4% this year,” note the authors. Three out of ten employers say that they have increased, compared to six out of ten last year. But this apparent calm actually masks a contraction in the activity of structures. Because more than a quarter of respondents say that recruitment difficulties have impacted the conduct of their activities. “Employers have given up. They have developed a form of renunciation to develop,” analyzes David Cluzeau, president of Hexopée, the first employers’ union in the animation sector. For him, “the bosses are now dealing with a smaller number of people, abandoning their ambitions and offering lesser activities”. At the risk of “no longer being able to respond to the real needs of a territory,” adds David Cluzeau.
The survey revealed 6,561 vacant positions. At the forefront are the professions of seasonal and permanent animator (with 2,157 and 1,932 positions to be filled, respectively). Administrative, coordination and catering functions also follow… “For two years, the sector has lacked workers at all levels and in all its branches,” warns the president of Hexopée. However, the explanatory factors have evolved. While last year, inflation weighed heavily on the attractiveness of the sector for employees, the main obstacles to employment today are the accessibility and financing of training, housing difficulties, the weight of the mobility and schedule of positions.
If “the efforts made on salaries (taking into account preparation times and increasing professional minimums by almost 10% in two years) have made it possible to compensate part of the lack of attractiveness, inflation risks eating into everything” , notes David Cluzeau bitterly. Especially since increasing salaries is somewhat of a headache. “It’s a sector that serves all segments of the population. It is impossible to simply increase the prices of colonies and recreational centers without risking being beyond the reach of all budgets,” explains the latter.
To prevent recruitment difficulties from becoming too long-term, “the sector needs financial, structural and long-term support,” says the president of Hexopée. While he does not fail to welcome the public policies taken to support the attractiveness of popular education professions, David Cluzeau and Patrice Chenu, president of Fonjep, both ask for a helping hand from the executive concerning the training of professionals.
Hexopée and the FONJEP thus wish “the expansion of the “Plan 1000 CQP” [Professional Qualification Certificate, Editor’s note] towards other certifying or qualifying training, and particularly youth diplomas and popular education in order to create a “ “supply shock” supported by the public authorities towards the popular education professions”. In addition, “directing the savings made thanks to the elimination of 30,000 supported jobs planned by the executive to Fonjep would be a good start,” says David Cluzeau. Thanks to this, the financial amount of “Fonjep positions” (aid of €7,000 to €8,000 paid by the State via Fonjep to youth associations and popular deduction) could be pushed up to 10,000 euros, and thus “ strengthen this major lever for the professionalization of associations.”
