Employment law
Vocational training: what the contract must set out
Objectives, duration and pay set down in writing, and a retention clause capped at four years.
Vocational training sits within the employment contract, or within an amendment. The Labour Code provides that the contract, or an amendment, may include alternating vocational training, continuing training or an internship.
And it immediately sets a formal requirement governing the whole arrangement: the objectives and duration of the training or internship, as well as the pay, must be expressly stated. Training whose aim, length and pay treatment cannot be stated is not properly framed (Labour Code, Article L.9 (French)).
1. The four categories of training action
| Category | Purpose | Target group |
|---|---|---|
| Preparation for working life | Enabling entry into working life | People without qualifications |
| Adaptation | Easing the move into a new post | Employees changing roles |
| Promotion | Acquiring a higher qualification | Employees progressing |
| Conversion | Enabling a change of career direction | Dismissed employees or self-employed workers |
Identifying the category is not an academic exercise: it determines the objective to be written into the contract, and therefore what the company commits to. Adaptation training leading to no new post, or promotion training with no change of classification, turns against the employer at review time.
2. Training at the employer's initiative
This is the most frequent case: most training stems from a company initiative. Three points to address in the amendment:
- the objective: what the training should enable the employee to do afterwards;
- the duration: start and end dates, and hours;
- the pay: maintenance of salary, coverage of costs, treatment of training time.
On this last point, a useful principle inherited from the apprenticeship regime: time spent on teaching is working time. It is not made up in the evening and not deducted from pay.
3. The retention clause after training
A company funding costly training may wish to secure a return on that investment. The Code permits this, but frames it strictly.
The contract may provide that the employee will be required to remain in the employer's service for a minimum period related to the cost of the training, without that period being able in any case to exceed four years.
| Condition | Content |
|---|---|
| A proportionate duration | It must be related to the cost of the training, not set arbitrarily |
| An absolute cap | Four years, whatever the amount invested |
| A written clause | It appears in the contract or the training amendment |
Two practical consequences. A five- or ten-year clause exceeds the statutory cap. And a four-year clause attached to a few days' training is disproportionate: the duration must be justified by the cost actually incurred, which means documenting it, the provider's invoice, travel costs, salary maintained during the absence (Labour Code, Article L.12 (French)).
4. Training at the employee's initiative
An employee wishing to improve their skills, update their knowledge or acquire new competencies must first obtain their employer's authorisation.
That authorisation is treated as an organisational decision: it is assessed against the department's constraints, and it helps to set out the terms in an internal policy, notice period for requests, criteria for arbitrating between competing requests, conditions for any funding.
Where the company agrees to fund all or part of the training, the retention clause becomes relevant, within the same limits as above.
5. Training and integration schemes
Alongside training for employees in post, two schemes organise entry into employment, each with its own regime:
- the apprenticeship contract, which commits the employer to methodical and complete vocational training, with mandatory writing, filing with the labour inspectorate and a rising allowance. See Apprenticeship;
- the qualification contract and internship schemes, for young graduates and unqualified young people. See Qualification or internship contract.
All three share the same logic: the counterpart of the adjusted regime is a genuine training commitment.
6. What to write into the training amendment
- The objective of the training, tied to one of the four categories.
- The duration: dates, hours, provider or centre concerned.
- The pay during the period, and the treatment of training time.
- The cost borne by the company, quantified: this is what will justify the length of any retention clause.
- The retention clause where applicable, proportionate and capped at four years.
- The assessment or validation arrangements at the end.
Key takeaways
| The rule | What it implies |
|---|---|
| Objectives, duration and pay expressly stated | A formal requirement set by the Code |
| Four categories of action | Preparation, adaptation, promotion, conversion |
| Training time is working time | It is neither made up nor deducted |
| The retention clause is capped at four years | And must relate to the cost of the training |
| The cost must be documented | It is what justifies the length of the commitment |
| Employee-requested training needs authorisation | To be framed by an internal policy |