- 2017Approved/Agreed
- 2018Implementation
- 2019Implementation
- 2020Implementation
- 2021Implementation
- 2022Implementation
- 2023Implementation
- 2024Implementation
Background
Initial findings suggested that 50% of jobs would be transformed within 10 years, that the unemployment rate was worse for the least skilled, and 13% of young people were NEET. The Investment in skills plan is a change in scale from previous annual plans which aim to combat social determinism, to show that leaving school does not mean leaving behind opportunities, to make sure no one is left behind and to transform the training system to support the competitiveness of businesses.
Objectives
The objective of the investment plan is to support access to employment for two million people, mainly those socially excluded, and prepare them for the challenges of the future.
Description
The Skills Investment plan (Plan d'investissement dna les compétences, PIC) is a government initiative aimed at improving job related skills and employability of 1 million job seekers and 1 million young people. Launched in 2018, this 5-year plan focuses on providing training programmes to help people gain qualifications that match the needs of the job market. Its goal is to reduce unemployment and promote social inclusion by investing in the development of skills that are in demand, particularly in sector with labour shortages or emerging industries.
A strand of the main investment plan, the Investment in skills plan (Plan d'investissement dans les compétences, PIC) is structured along three lines:
- better analysing skills needs to focus training policies and guide people better. In 2018, a call for projects targeted at sectors resulted in selecting ten projects to address businesses' recruitment needs better;
- financing new training pathways and support for sound employment. In 2018, 148 000 training actions for young people and low-qualified jobseekers were funded through State-Regions agreements. Calls for projects were launched, including '10Knum' (to fund more than 10 000 training courses in digital trades) and '10Kvert' (for trades in relation to the ecological transition);
- innovating and transforming training provision through experimenting. In 2018, three calls for proposals were launched, targeting VET providers and...
The Skills Investment plan (Plan d'investissement dna les compétences, PIC) is a government initiative aimed at improving job related skills and employability of 1 million job seekers and 1 million young people. Launched in 2018, this 5-year plan focuses on providing training programmes to help people gain qualifications that match the needs of the job market. Its goal is to reduce unemployment and promote social inclusion by investing in the development of skills that are in demand, particularly in sector with labour shortages or emerging industries.
A strand of the main investment plan, the Investment in skills plan (Plan d'investissement dans les compétences, PIC) is structured along three lines:
- better analysing skills needs to focus training policies and guide people better. In 2018, a call for projects targeted at sectors resulted in selecting ten projects to address businesses' recruitment needs better;
- financing new training pathways and support for sound employment. In 2018, 148 000 training actions for young people and low-qualified jobseekers were funded through State-Regions agreements. Calls for projects were launched, including '10Knum' (to fund more than 10 000 training courses in digital trades) and '10Kvert' (for trades in relation to the ecological transition);
- innovating and transforming training provision through experimenting. In 2018, three calls for proposals were launched, targeting VET providers and aiming to promote: most innovative approaches to social and professional inclusion; projects to foster the professional integration of refugees; and apprenticeship preparatory courses, to secure success in apprenticeships.
About half the total planned budget is allocated to regional implementation. The skills investment plan is tailored to each region through regional pacts for investment in skills (Pactes Régionaux d'Investissement dans les compétences, PRIC), signed by the State and the regional authorities concerned.
In 2019, all the regions have a regional skills investment pact (PRIC) (implemented by the public employment service in two regions); the results for 2019 are 450 000 additional people entering training and 320 000 support services provided.
The skills investment plan is implemented at national level through calls for projects. Among the projects developed in 2019:
- developing existing schemes: 38 000 jobseekers benefited from Operational preparation for collective employment to acquire skills for jobs corresponding to needs identified by a professional branch;
- innovation projects: 60 projects have been selected, allowing the integration into the workforce of 2 000 refugees;
- new programmes: pre-apprenticeship has 4 500 spaces for young people aged 16 to 29 who are specifically from urban policy priority areas, NEETs or disabled;
- regional initiatives: the Bourgogne Franche Comté region has launched courses based on skills blocks in the construction and building trades, enabling the development of versatility in the related trades. Occitanie has developed an Observatory 4.0 that uses artificial intelligence technologies to adjust training offers. In Normandy, the use of digital badges makes it easier for companies to see the skills present in their territory.
The Scientific Committee of the Investment in skills plan released its first report in October 2020. It observes that the PIC was adjusted quickly to adapt to the health crisis, for example by strengthening the training offered to young people, particularly in the healthcare sector, by highlighting training for digital skills or by upgrading pay of apprentices.
In 2019, through PIC it became possible to recover a level of new training courses close to that of 2016 (the latter linked to the previous plan for additional training courses: Plan 500 000 formations supplémentaires): 964 000 jobseekers entered training in 2019 (more than one million if we add employees in professional integration schemes). The rate of access to training for the least-qualified jobseekers returned to growth in 2019 (10% compared with 8.4% in 2018). To encourage the employment of the least qualified, the new national programmes of PIC have been introduced, specifically preparatory programmes for entry into qualifying training. After falling in recent years, the percentage of these preparatory training courses has returned to its 2015 level.
The scientific committee of the Investment in Skills plan (PIC) published a second mid-term review report. It noted a rapid and significant deployment of training actions for job seekers in 2019 compared to 2017, including, significantly, 100 000 new admissions to training programmes for the low qualified unemployed. The rate of access to training of job seekers (1 year after registration with the PES services) has increased from 8% to 11%. This momentum has been stopped by the COVID-19 crisis. The number of training admissions remained stable in 2020, due to the increase of training actions initiated by learners through the individual learning account scheme (compte personel de formation, CPF), which offset the reduction in training offered by the Regions or the public employment service (Pôle emploi).
By studying a few sectors in detail, the scientific committee noted that the training system held up well during the crisis, thanks, in particular, to the use of digital tools to maintain contact with trainees. This is a practice that was encouraged by the PIC. The PIC aims to radically transform the continuing training system by strengthening the logic of upskilling pathways, developing training provision and improving its quality, changing learner perception and attracting the least qualified into training. Structural changes are necessarily long-term, and continuity has been disrupted by the crisis. The participation of low-qualified people (the main target group of the PIC) increased, but no more than in the other categories.
In June 2021, the component of the PIC relating to modernisation gave rise to a EUR 100 million call for projects linked to France innovative digital training schemes (Dispositifs France formation innovante numérique, Deffinum). This call for proposals was aimed at'consortia and groups of stakeholders who wish to speed up the hybridisation of their training and deploy innovative teaching methods, in particular more active teaching methods, in order to make the learner truly an active participant in his learning'.
A Training transformation and digitisation plan, led by the High Commissioner for Skills, aims to broaden and speed up the integration of contributions from the digital, immersive and cognitive science fields into training. As such, regional calls for projects for creating third-party training facilities are foreseen in the first quarter of 2022.
A plan to reduce recruitment pressures was presented by the government in September 2021. It includes a training component and provides for it to be updated by the Regions through the regional skills investment pacts (Pactes régionaux digital challenges' and 'Measure Contributing to equal opportunities in all areas' / d'investissement dans les compétences, Pric).
From 2022 this policy development is part of the NIP: 'Measure Anticipating and facilitating ecological and digital transitions' / Action: 'Adapting vocational diplomas to ecological and Action: 'Measures to support entry into training'.
In 2022, under the 'Training Transformation and Digitisation Plan' and more specifically the 'Deffinum call for proposals', with a budget of 100 millions Euros, 62 projects proposed by training providers at a national or interregional level were selected and granted. The projects include a strong drive for educational innovation, in particular integrating the contributions of digital and immersive technologies, cognitive sciences and on-the-job training.
Furthermore, the PIC skills investment plan's scientific assessment committee has published its third assessment report. The report looks at the effects of the plan on the trajectory of the least qualified people for the period 2018-2021. According to the findings of the report, access to training for the least qualified jobseekers has increased significantly. Thus, the rate of jobseekers with a qualification level below EQF4 taking up a training has increased from 8.6% in 2017 to 11% in 2021, within one year after being registered by the Public Employment Service.However, the authors of the report note that their proportion among the total number of trainees remains stable, as half of the trainees.
The PIC has also enabled the development of courses aiming at preparing for further entry into training actions leading to a qualification: remedial basic knowledge courses, guidance and motivation support, pre-qualification. The effects of these preparatory training courses, in terms of exiting to another training pathway, are measured to be increasing: 32% in the following year for people who have followed a training targeting basic knowledge and key competences in 2020, compared to 24% in 2017.
The government has decided to extend the PIC until 2023, but with reduced resources. A review of the plan's mechanisms is scheduled for 2023 in order to assess whether it should continue to be financed from ordinary budgetary funds and to examine ways of continuing the regional implementation of employment and training policies.
A new generation of Regional Skills Investment Pacts (Pactes Régionaux d'Investissement dans les Compétences, PRIC) for 2024-27 is currently under development, with the contractualisation process underway. Initiated in 2020 by the PIC Scientific Evaluation Committee, these studies aim to analyse the effects of the pacts on regional orientation and training ecosystems. Conducted between 2021 and 2023, 8 regional case studies—covering Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Brittany, Centre-Val de Loire, Grand Est, Martinique, Normandy, Occitanie, and Pays de la Loire—shed light on processes, incentives, and decision-making impacts over the 2018-22 period.
In 2024, evaluations assessing the impact of previous PRIC initiatives have been published. The implementation of regional pacts has strengthened coordination between the State, Regions, and the national public employment service, France Travail, but has also revealed challenges in local governance and alignment between national and regional programmes. Despite increased efforts to reach job seekers furthest from employment—through financial support, outreach initiatives, and preparatory training—difficulties in recruiting trainees and competition between programmes have limited their impact. Progress has been made in improving the continuity of training pathways with the introduction of career advisors and modular training programmes, yet the divide between preparatory and qualifying training remains a challenge. Regions have enhanced their dialogue with businesses and experimented with tailor-made training programmes to meet labour market needs, although employer involvement remains insufficient, particularly in workplace-based learning. Additionally, pedagogical transformation, including the expansion of remote and work-based training, has faced organisational and financial constraints. These findings have helped shape the next generation of the PIC by emphasising more effective governance, better targeting of priority job seekers, stronger training continuity, increased support for pedagogical innovation, and greater employer engagement to better align with labour market demands and beneficiary needs.
Bodies responsible
- Ministry of Labour, Employment and Professional Integration (until 2022)
- Regional councils for employment, training and vocational guidance
- Regional authorities
- Ministry of Labour, Full Employment and Inclusion
Target groups
Learners
- Young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs)
- Learners with migrant background, including refugees
- Unemployed and jobseekers
- Low-skilled/qualified persons
- Learners from other groups at risk of exclusion (minorities, people with fewer opportunities due to geographical location or social-economic disadvantaged position)
Entities providing VET
- VET providers (all kinds)
Thematic categories
Governance of VET and lifelong learning
This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.
This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.
The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.
High-quality and timely skills intelligence is a powerful policy tool, helping improve economic competitiveness and fostering social progress and equality through the provision of targeted skills training to all citizens (Cedefop, 2020). Skills intelligence is the outcome of an expert-driven process of identifying, analysing, synthesising and presenting quantitative and/or qualitative skills and labour market information. Skills intelligence draws on data from multiple sources, such as graduate tracking systems, skills anticipation mechanisms, including at sectoral and regional levels. Actions related to establishing and developing such systems fall under this thematic sub-category.
Modernising VET infrastructure
This thematic category looks at how VET schools and companies providing VET are supported to update and upgrade their physical infrastructure for teaching and learning, including digital and green technologies, so that learners in all VET programmes and specialities have access to state-of-the-art equipment and are able to acquire relevant and up-to-date vocational and technical skills and competences. Modernising infrastructure in remote and rural areas increases the inclusiveness of VET and LLL.
This thematic sub-category refers to measures for modernising physical infrastructure, equipment and technology needed to acquire vocational skills in VET schools and institutions that provide CVET or adult learning, including VET school workshops and labs.
This thematic sub-category focuses on establishing and upgrading to state-of-the-art digital infrastructure, equipment and technology, such as computers, hardware, connectivity and good broadband speed that should ensure quality and inclusive VET provision, especially in blended and virtual modes. It also includes specific measures to remove the digital divide, e.g. supporting geographically remote or rural areas to ensure social inclusion through access to such infrastructure for learning and teaching. It also includes support measures for learners from socially disadvantaged backgrounds to acquire the necessary equipment.
Modernising VET offer and delivery
This thematic category looks at what and how individuals learn, how learning content and learning outcomes in initial and continuing VET are defined, adapted and updated. First and foremost, it examines how VET standards, curricula, programmes and training courses are updated and modernised or new ones created. Updated and renewed VET content ensures that learners acquire a balanced mix of competences that address modern demands, and are more closely aligned with the realities of the labour market, including key competences, digital competences and skills for green transition and sustainability, both sector-specific and across sectors. Using learning outcomes as a basis is important to facilitate this modernisation, including modularisation of VET programmes. Updating and developing teaching and learning materials to support the above is also part of the category.
The thematic category continues to focus on strengthening high-quality and inclusive apprenticeships and work-based learning in real-life work environments and in line with the European framework for quality and effective apprenticeships. It looks at expanding apprenticeship to continuing vocational training and at developing VET programmes at EQF levels 5-8 for better permeability and lifelong learning and to support the need for higher vocational skills.
This thematic category also focuses on VET delivery through a mix of open, digital and participative learning environments, including workplaces conducive to learning, which are flexible, more adaptable to the ways individuals learn, and provide more access and outreach to various groups of learners, diversifying modes of learning and exploiting the potential of digital learning solutions and blended learning to complement face-to-face learning.
Centres of vocational excellence that connect VET to innovation and skill ecosystems and facilitate stronger cooperation with business and research also fall into this category.
VET standards and curricula define the content and outcomes of learning, most often at national or sectoral levels. VET programmes are based on standards and curricula and refer to specific vocations/occupations. They all need to be regularly reviewed, updated and aligned with the needs of the labour market and society. They need to include a balanced mix of vocational and technical skills corresponding to economic cycles, evolving jobs and working methods, and key competences, providing for resilience, lifelong learning, employability, social inclusion, active citizenship, sustainable awareness and personal development (Council of the European Union, 2020). The thematic sub-category also refers to establishing new VET programmes, reducing their number or discontinuing some. It also includes design of CVET programmes and training courses to adapt to labour market, sectoral or individual up- and re-skilling needs.
This thematic sub-category is about the way learners learn, how the learning is delivered to them, and by what means. Programmes become more accessible through a combination of adaptable and flexible formats (e.g. face-to-face, digital and/or blended learning), through digital learning platforms that allow better outreach, especially for vulnerable groups and for learners in geographically remote or rural areas.
This thematic sub-category refers to acquisition of key competences and basic skills for all, from an early age and throughout their life, including those acquired as part of qualifications and curricula. Key competences include knowledge, skills and attitudes needed by all for personal fulfilment and development, employability and lifelong learning, social inclusion, active citizenship and sustainable awareness. Key competences include literacy; multilingual; science, technology, engineering and mathematical (STEM); digital; personal, social and learning to learn; active citizenship, entrepreneurship, cultural awareness and expression (Council of the European Union, 2018).
Green transition and environmental sustainability have a significant place in the EU agenda (Green Deal), including the agenda for VET. This thematic sub-category refers to identifying in cooperation with industry, incorporating into VET curricula and programmes and teaching the skills related and needed for the green transition, including sector- and occupation-specific skills and those across sectors. It covers measures aimed at ‘greening’ VET programmes, including awareness and knowledge about climate change, green technologies and innovation, energy efficiency, circular economy and environmental sustainability. It also includes the use of appropriate learning methods that develop such awareness.
This thematic sub-category refers to updating VET curricula and programmes to incorporate skills related and needed for the digital transition, including sector- and occupation-specific ones identified in cooperation with stakeholders.
Supporting lifelong learning culture and increasing participation
Lifelong learning refers to all learning (formal, non-formal or informal) taking place at all stages in life and resulting in an improvement or update in knowledge, skills, competences and attitudes or in participation in society from a personal, civic, cultural, social or employment-related perspective (Erasmus+, Glossary of terms, https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/programme-guide/part-d/glossary-common-terms). A systemic approach to CVET is crucial to ensure adaptability to evolving demands.
This broad thematic category looks at ways of creating opportunities and ensuring access to re-skilling and upskilling pathways, allowing individuals to progress smoothly in their learning throughout their lives with better permeability between general and vocational education and training, and better integration and compatibility between initial and continuing VET and with higher education. Individuals should be supported in acquiring and updating their skills and competences and navigating easily through education and training systems. Strategies and campaigns that promote VET and LLL as an attractive and high-quality pathway, providing quality lifelong guidance and tailored support to design learning and career paths, and various incentives (financial and non-financial) to attract and support participation in VET and LLL fall into this thematic category as well.
This thematic category also includes many initiatives on making VET inclusive and ensuring equal education and training opportunities for various groups of learners, regardless of their personal and economic background and place of residence – especially those at risk of disadvantage or exclusion, such as persons with disabilities, the low-skilled and low-qualified, minorities, migrants, refugees and others.
This thematic sub-category refers to providing the possibility for individuals who are already in the labour market/in employment to reskill and/or acquire higher levels of skills, and to ensuring targeted information resources on the benefits of CVET and lifelong learning. It also covers the availability of CVET programmes adaptable to labour market, sectoral or individual up- and reskilling needs. The sub-category includes working with respective stakeholders to develop digital learning solutions supporting access to CVET opportunities and awarding CVET credentials and certificates.
This thematic sub-category refers to making VET pathways and programmes inclusive and accessible for all. It concerns measures and targeted actions to increase access and participation in VET and lifelong learning for learners from all vulnerable groups, and to support their school/training-to-work transitions. It includes measures to prevent early leaving from education and training. The thematic sub-category covers measures promoting gender balance in traditionally ‘male’ and ‘female’ professions and addressing gender-related and other stereotypes. The vulnerable groups are, but not limited to: persons with disabilities; the low-qualified/-skilled; minorities; persons of migrant background, including refugees; people with fewer opportunities due to their geographical location and/or their socioeconomically disadvantaged circumstances.
European priorities in VET
VET Recommendation
- VET agile in adapting to labour market challenges
- Flexibility and progression opportunities at the core of VET
- VET as a driver for innovation and growth preparing for digital and green transitions and occupations in high demand
- VET as an attractive choice based on modern and digitalised provision of training and skills
- VET promoting equality of opportunities
Osnabrück Declaration
- Resilience and excellence through quality, inclusive and flexible VET
- Establishing a new lifelong learning culture - relevance of continuing VET and digitalisation
- Sustainability - a green link in VET
- European Education and Training Area and international VET
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Investment in skills plan: building a skills society: France. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/pl/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/28235