“When I finished auditing a box listed on the CAC 40, I felt like I was just one number among many. I was replaceable.” This is the reason why Eléonore Bourrel, 32, decided to retrain professionally (his testimony can be found in full on our LinkedIn page). After four years in financial auditing, the young woman decided to embark on craftsmanship in 2021 and create her brand of soaps.
Like her, 48% of working people are now considering or preparing for professional retraining, according to the 2023 barometer of the professional transformation of Center Inffo. A phenomenon that the Covid and its successive confinements have only confirmed. “The pandemic has accelerated the process of professional retraining but has not triggered a movement”, explains Bérangère Varret, professional development consultant at the Association for the employment of executives (Apec).
To convert younger and younger
According to an Ipsos study for the Observatory of professional trajectories, between 2015 and 2017, nearly 27% of the active population had experienced a professional transition. In 2018, the organization noted for the first time a notable increase. While, before this date, 1 in 4 working people made a professional transition, in 2018, 1 in 3 retrained, i.e. 32.2% of the working population. In 2019, they even represented 35.8% of assets. Finally, 2 million have changed jobs between 2017 and 2022, according to Cereq.
If it did not trigger a real boom in professional retraining, the pandemic did however have an impact on the age of people wanting to change jobs. “Some time ago, a 25-year-old young woman came to see me. She had only worked for a year and a half but already wanted to retrain, testifies Bérangère Varret. I have been doing this job for twenty years and, which strikes me, it is the drop in the average age at which we do a retraining.
Align with personal values
Barbara Barthélemy, employment counselor for youth employment contract (CEJ) for more than four years at the Pôle emploi de Villejuif (Val-de-Marne), makes the same observation. “In the young audience that I accompany, I have observed since the Covid that more and more of them, having started working quite early, already have different aspirations from when they started.”
The reasons are numerous: societal, ecological, technological, financial issues… But the first reason remains the desire to get closer to one’s personal values. “In large structures, where employees may have the impression of being a link in a chain, many are retraining to find more meaning and concreteness in their daily lives”, explains Bérangère Varret, of Apec.
A few tips to remember
To put this desire into practice, you have to ask yourself the right questions. Above all, Meryem Thomann, director of the Pôle emploi agency in Villejuif, advises not to be left alone when faced with such a project: “It is recommended to ask for support from the start of the retraining process, whether with Pôle job, another organization or his company.” This is advice that Aurélien Verneuil (his testimony can be found in full on our LinkedIn page), after four years in pastry, gave himself up when changing jobs to move towards the world of data analysis: “You shouldn’t isolate yourself. When you surround yourself, everything is much easier.”
Each reconversion is different and does not require the same course. “It’s a funnel approach, recalls the director of the Pôle emploi agency in Villejuif. We start from ourselves first and then compare our ideal with the reality of the market.”
If each profile is unique, four main axes, common to all, are used:
- The first step is to take stock of the reasons for his retraining: “this will influence the rest of the project”, assures the Pôle emploi adviser Barbara Barthélemy. Agnes Viel (his testimony can be found in full on our LinkedIn page), a former nurse who became a music teacher, confirms this: “Don’t hesitate to take the time to think about what you really want to do. Many retrain too quickly and in a branch that doesn’t suit them.”
- The second step is to take stock of skills: “Experience acquired in previous jobs can often be transferred to the new project”, explains Barbara Barthélemy.
- Once these two steps have been completed and the new professional project is clearly in mind, it is then necessary to take into account the reality of the labor market. To do this, the young adviser recommends discussing with professionals, doing internships or spending time immersed in the targeted field. It is also necessary to know the outlets of the targeted profession.
- The last step is the skills assessment, which will make it possible to report on the consistency between the person’s profile and their new project.
In addition to these four areas, Nathalie Wadoux (his testimony can be found in full on our LinkedIn page), now a professor of economics and management after twenty years in commerce, insists: “Don’t be afraid to work a lot and devote time to your new job.”
Finally, with regard to training, although it is not compulsory, the director of the Pôle emploi agency Meryem Thomann nevertheless recalls that professional retraining amounts to “updating skills not experienced in the field: they must reinforce, but also acquire new ones, which often go through a need for training”. Vincent Monatte (his testimony can be found in full on our LinkedIn page) had no training when he left CNRS research in 2010 to join a bicycle start-up as a technician. He decided to resume one recently, in order to “formalise knowledge learned in the field”.
Find all the testimonials in full here:
Eléonore, 32, from financial audit at the soap factory
Aurélien, 28, from pastry chef to data engineer
Vincent, 43, from the CNRS to the world of cycling