The Franco-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CFACI) and the French branches of four large German chemicals groups (BAYER, BASF, Merck and Boehringer) have teamed up to create a joint training scheme for maintenance engineers, through which they can earn a BTS, a French vocational qualification. The scheme will involve digital training as well as several weeks spent in Germany, with trainees earning a double French and German certification. The initiative was unveiled on 20 January but the content of the training scheme is still being worked on. The first cohort will commence in September 2020. To better gauge the purpose of this initiative, which has been made possible by law introduced in France to help people freely choose their ‘professional future’, Planet Labor spoke to Margarete Riegler-Poyet, head of the training department at the CFACI, and Jean-Pierre Plasson, head of human resources at BASF France. The duo highlight, among other things, the poor reputation of technical professions in France.
A groundbreaking apprenticeship programme, designed by companies. A question from the French subsidiary of German pharmaceutical heavyweight Boehringer Ingelheim to the German embassy in France about the possibility of organising the group’s own apprenticeship course set things in motion. “The question was passed on to us. As we are in contact with other groups that are very committed to and interested in training issues, particularly in the chemical industry, we shared the idea, which immediat
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