The Personal Training Account is evolving, a new website and mobile application will be available this fall to simplify the user experience. Caisse des Dépôts is becoming by law a central player in vocational training and supports the State in the transformation of our country for greater social justice.
Enacted on 5 September 2018, the Act for the freedom to choose one’s future occupation has significantly reformed the apprenticeship and training system in France. “The spirit of the Act is to create a society of skills to make France more competitive at international level”, states Michel Yahiel, Caisse des Dépôts Pensions and Solidarity Director. All that remained was to effectively launch this reform: this was achieved on Friday, 11 January 2018 when the Minister of Labour, Muriel Pénicaud, and the Caisse des Dépôts CEO, Éric Lombard, signed an agreement enabling Caisse des Dépôts to start works to implement the new Individual Training Account.
Caisse des Dépôts, the leading player in vocational training
The State has entrusted Caisse des Dépôts with implementing all aspects of the new Individual Training Account. Caisse des Dépôts has a long history of managing the information system for the former Individual Training Account, and it is now its technical and financial operator.
It will take charge of the service’s online operation, of data centralisation and of financial resource management. Two dedicated funds (that of mandatory contributions and that of voluntary contributions) will ensure that training organisations are paid; this new system will be gradually rolled out as from November 2019.
One of the main new features is the creation of a mobile app, which will be available next November. Each working individual will therefore have a personalised path on their smartphone and will have direct access to the catalogue of training courses, be able to register for the course of their choice and mobilise funding.
Vocational training, accessible to all
Caisse des Dépôts is therefore playing its full role in assisting public policies to serve general interest. Faced with a labour market undergoing tremendous change - within ten years, 1 job in 2 will have substantially changed -, training is a major focus for transformation in our country.
It allows for the adjustment of employee’s skills to suit labour market evolutions and the new jobs arising therefrom. It also contributes towards reducing the social divide, with only 6% of workers stating that they have a choice of training courses, compared with 25% of executives. Inequalities are still present at all levels: “Today, an hour of continuing training for an executive is more expensive than for a worker or an employee, this is social justice”, underlines Muriel Pénicaud, Minister of Labour.
The Individual Training Account in numbers
Share dedicated to the Individual Training Account in France’s total budget, driven by Caisse des Dépôts: €2bn
Number of individuals concerned: 25 million Individual Training Accounts fed into each year