With­in the Renault auto­mo­bile group, appren­tice­ship is a real chal­lenge that allows us to sup­port young peo­ple when acquir­ing their diplo­mas by offer­ing them a first oper­a­tional expe­ri­ence, but also to con­tribut­ing to iden­ti­fy­ing pos­si­ble recruit­ment pools.

Through its ‘Young Gen­er­a­tion’ pol­i­cy, the Renault Auto­mo­bile Group con­tributes to the train­ing of pupils and stu­dents with two strong and com­ple­men­tary ori­en­ta­tions: to have the younger gen­er­a­tions as pro­fes­sion­als through­out their train­ing course and to devel­op new knowl­edge in con­junc­tion with train­ing estab­lish­ments.

More than 700 appren­tices are recruit­ed each year with­in the Renault SAS scope. In 2021, the com­pa­ny recruit­ed more than 800 work-study stu­dents despite a dif­fi­cult pan­dem­ic health con­text. It should be not­ed that in 2021, the rate of young women is slight­ly up, at 33%. The aim is both to main­tain the core busi­ness lines of the auto­mo­tive sec­tor and to sup­port the employ­a­bil­i­ty of young peo­ple in the areas where the com­pa­ny is based. “Renault is a his­tor­i­cal part­ner of UTC with which we have had strong links for many years. We appre­ci­ate the qual­i­ty train­ing that this engi­neer­ing school pro­vides and that meets our busi­ness needs. We also appre­ci­ate the diver­si­fied pro­files and the fact that the UTC stu­dents man­age to inte­grate very quick­ly into the com­pa­ny world”, assures Yas­mi­na Chibani, in charge of the Col­lege Rela­tions with­in the French Human Resources Direc­torate (HRD) of Renault. And she adds: “Whether it is with­in the Renault Group or in anoth­er com­pa­ny, our appren­tices are endowed with enrich­ing and for­ma­tive expe­ri­ences in order to achieve good careers. They are bet­ter equipped because they know the world of indus­try, its devel­op­ments and its chal­lenges. For­mer appren­tices in turn become ambas­sadors to tes­ti­fy about the ben­e­fits of choos­ing to fol­low an apprenticeship.” 

Added-value of apprenticeship schemes for both student and company 

For the stu­dent, appren­tice­ships are above all syn­ony­mous for per­son­al auton­o­my. Appren­tices are at the heart of the com­pa­ny’s activ­i­ty, which allows them to put into prac­tice what they learn in class to increase their skills more quick­ly. They learn to adapt to their work envi­ron­ment and to become a source of ideas to sup­port their col­leagues. Not for­get­ting the finan­cial aspect, which is not insignif­i­cant as it offers them the pos­si­bil­i­ty of both financ­ing their course and meet­ing their per­son­al liv­ing expens­es. Hir­ing an appren­tice has many advan­tages for the com­pa­ny too. It is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to train a young per­son in the com­pa­ny’s work­ing meth­ods and cul­ture and, pos­si­bly, to have an employ­ee who is imme­di­ate­ly oper­a­tional once the appren­tice­ship peri­od is over. “And I would even add that the con­trac­tu­al rela­tion­ship can lead to a first job. This increas­es the attrac­tive­ness and reten­tion after the appren­tice­ship peri­od. We set up induc­tion ses­sions for our appren­tices. This enables them to get to know the com­pa­ny bet­ter and there­fore to inte­grate bet­ter. Being part of a team allows them to under­stand com­plex process­es through the trans­mis­sion of knowledge.” 

Hands-on experience in the field 

Appren­tice­ship allows stu­dents to take respon­si­bil­i­ty and to be con­front­ed with the real­i­ty of the field. The appren­tice is con­sid­ered as a col­lab­o­ra­tor who car­ries out mis­sions that con­tribute to the com­pa­ny’s per­for­mance. Appren­tice­ship mas­ters have an essen­tial role in super­vis­ing and sup­port­ing the appren­tice and pass­ing on knowl­edge. “Wel­com­ing sand­wich course stu­dents allows our busi­ness­es to respond to com­plex issues or sub­jects with a fresh per­spec­tive,” is the con­clu­sion drawn by Renault, which donates its appren­tice­ship tax to around a hun­dred schools and asso­ci­a­tions each year. “The aim is to sup­port the schools with which we are used to work­ing in order to par­tic­i­pate in their devel­op­ment, whether in the cre­ation of new train­ing cours­es or in their equipment”.