Portrait of the 400th apprentice hired in 2020
Laëtitia Guégan joined the Production and Composites Department on Naval Group’s Lorient site on 20 October. At the age of 40, she decided to opt for professional retraining in 2019, after a variety of career experiences. “I wanted to move towards something manual because I like working with my hands. After much research and thinking, I chose the composites environment. I took training in composite material molding and quickly knew I’d made the right choice!” she explains. After training at the National Agency for Adult Vocational Training (AFPA), she was ready to take the next step. She felt that a work-study program was an interesting option: “At Naval Group, I found everything I was looking for: a manual profession that requires versatility and the human aspect with teamwork. Every week, I join a different team which allows me to discover new processes: it’s fascinating! And, at the end of my apprenticeship, I believe I’ll be ready to work with full confidence.”
The work-study program is a means of handing on Naval Group’s cutting-edge skills, in particular within the design and production professions
Apprenticeship is one of the means deployed on a large scale on each of our sites, in order to maintain our level of skills: it is a way of achieving excellence and a springboard towards employment. Work-study training enables knowledge and know-how to be passed on by the company, and for this contact with the work in the field is essential.
The work-study solution is a means of preparing the future in all areas of activity at Naval Group, from ship design to production, through all the cross-cutting functions. Work-study is a way to safeguard know-how in areas where it takes a very long time to acquire skills: for example, between six and twelve years are needed to achieve expertise in welding a pressure hull, between four and six years to learn how to adjust the propulsion mechanisms of our ships. Perpetuating skills is strategic for Naval Group, given the duration of defence programs, which often last several decades.
This year, and despite the health crisis and two nationwide lockdowns, Naval Group welcomed 400 new interns, 50 more than in previous years.
To anticipate the needs of tomorrow, the future employees must be trained today. Some trades are under stress, for example shipwrights, hull welders or pipe fitters, electronic technicians or even cybersecurity managers
In addition to work-study programs, Naval Group deploys a variety of integration and training tools to attract these new talents
Naval Group also welcomes several hundred trainees every year, from middle and high school students to those in higher education. Internships help introduce the interns to the wide variety of professions proposed by the company and enable them to discover the world of the naval defence industry.
A recruitment campaign for 400 interns is today being launched and offers students taking a gap year or reaching the end of their studies a wide range of opportunities to learn our professions, in the field.
Naval Group offers opportunities for young people, but also those looking for professional retraining, or joint qualification certification in metallurgy (CQPM). These nationally recognised training programs with certification are carried out partly at a training organisation and partly in Naval Group’s workshops. They enable the trainees to acquire the skills needed to exercise a trade. For example, on the Lorient site, training for the shipwright CQPM started in September 2019, in collaboration with the Lorient UIMM (Union of Metallurgy Industries and Trades). There are currently 10 students in the class of 2020.
On a more general level, Naval Group is aiming to work more closely with the education system. To acquire these rare skills, Naval Group is working upstream of the labour market, notably by forging close ties with young people. The company takes part in a wide range of grass-roots actions. It has notably developed the School Partners programme, a community of more than thirty male and female ambassadors designed to reinforce and develop close relations with targeted schools: professional colleges, IUT (University Institute of Technology), engineering schools, universities, in order to share information about the group’s trades.
At the instigation of Naval Group and the region of Brittany, the Naval Industries Campus Initiative (CINav) was born in 2018. It brings together industrial customers in the sector, the regions, local education authorities and professional trades unions. It was created in order to guarantee a source of qualified national manpower firmly rooted in coastal regions. Its roles are to make the sector and its trades more attractive, to give the training programs a maritime focus and official certification, in order to develop skills to meet the needs of industry.
Press contacts:
Emmanuel GAUDEZ
Tel: +33 (0)1 40 59 55 69
Mob. : +33 (0)6 61 97 36 63
emmanuel.gaudez@naval-group.com
Bérengère GOURAUD
Tel: +33 (0)1 40 59 56 44
Mob. : +33 (0)7 76 86 53 79
berengere.gouraud@naval-group.com