News from the SYCFI about independent trainers

Here is an interesting article by Martine Guerin, the president of SYCFI (Syndicat des Consultants Formateur Indépendants) about the future for independents, "entre craintes et opportunités".

https://www.cpformation.com/martine-guerin-presidente-sycfi/

In response to the article TLN member Greg Williams writes:

" As a member of the SYCFI board since Jan 2018, I've been trying to "do my bit" for the profession especially with this new wave of "reforms" under Ms Pénicaud, the Employment Minister since the last GE in June 2017. This is a very diplomatic interview with very little being said that might be interpreted as a criticism of the government's action, but I personally take a much harsher view of what the government is trying to do.

Whereas I agree with some aspects of the spirit of the law such as taking a more holistic view of "training" and including pluri-disciplinary approaches to solving the issue of building competence and skills in the middle of this fourth tech revolution, there are two fundamental aspects which I find could reduce these fine dreams of mice and men to dust.

First, governance of the training system is now largely under the direct control of government, replacing the joint administration (between bosses and union reps) set out under the original law, back in 1972 and which ensured some independence from the voracious central gov't appetite for total budgetary control. We now have a central organisation called France Compétence, headed by a President appointed by government, presiding over a mixed college of various players of the training sectors. This gov't meddling with training funds has never been very good for the main beneficiaries, since gov't can always redirect them to a central budget when recession looms its ugly head (as Sarkozy's administration did back in the early 2000s). Secondly, the hourly rate of publicly-funded training (namely the CPF) has plummeted from between 35 to 50€/h to 15€/h today and will probably go down to 11€/h by the end of the year (15€/h incl. VAT = 11€/h HT). Given that companies will most probably not be investing very much in training again this year, given the uncertainty of the new system and how much they might have to fork out in the end of the year, public markets will be important to many of us in the coming months, if it isn't already the case. The other aspect, to be confirmed, is that this rate will become the new indicator for the sector, especially for subjects like languages and computer training.

Lastly, and Martine does mention this point, is the generalisation of qualification/certification for ALL independent trainers by the end of 2021. Fine, I've got no problem with that, though I'm not completely dupe - the classic strategy of drowning small businesses/freelancers with paperwork/red tape and hope they'll go out of business. Improve quality, we all agree, but when it costs 3500€, that's more than 1000€ a year, then I call that unfair competition and a clear message from the government to forcibly concentrate the market to the advantage of the big players and to the detriment of... quality! How paradoxical!"