Working in France - Vocational Training

What is individual training leave?

It is a right of absence from work, under certain conditions, enabling you to follow a training course of your choice:

• at your initiative and individually;
• regardless of your possible participation in training courses forming part of your undertaking’s training plan.

The training shall be conducted during all or part of your working hours.

The training should enable you to gain access to a higher level of qualification, change jobs or professions, perfect your skills in the cultural or social domains, or prepare for or sit an examination. Your employment contract is not terminated but suspended.

You can benefit from this type of leave if you are an employee in an undertaking in the industrial, commercial, crafts, agricultural or association sectors, regardless of the size of the undertaking and of its legal status (public limited company, limited liability company, cooperative, mutual interest undertaking or association).

Seniority

You must be able to prove salaried employment of twenty-four months, consecutive or not, of which twelve must have been spent in the undertaking, regardless of the nature of the successive employment contracts.

This condition rises to thirty-six months for workers in crafts companies with under ten employees, with twelve months being spent in the undertaking.
The seniority condition is not required if you have changed jobs as a result of redundancy and you have not taken a training course between the time of being made redundant and re-employment.

The training must consist of a course to acquire, maintain and perfect skills, a course that will permit the obtaining of higher qualifications, or a course to reduce the risk of qualifications not being in line with technological developments.

Training can also involve a pretraining course, adaptation course, recycling course or skills review. You are not obliged to choose a course that relates to your work or to that of the undertaking.
Your training may be professional or cultural.

Duration of leave

The duration of the leave corresponds to that of the training course, which may be full-time or part-time but cannot exceed: one year for a full-time course, or 1 200 hours if the course consists of irregular classes or is part-time.

Branch agreements or agreements concluded with the Government or regions may provide for longer periods of leave.

Training fees

Training fees (registration, accommodation and transport) may be fully or partly paid by the employer or by the body financing training leave.

Employees rights

Since the time spent on training leave is regarded as similar to working time, paid holidays and bonuses are owed in full to employees. You can continue to benefit from all social security services.

Applying for training leave

The request for authorisation from the employer to be absent from work must be in writing and must indicate precisely the start of the training course and the title, duration and name of the body responsible.

In the event of leave to sit an examination, you must enclose a registration certification with your application.

Deadline for submitting the application to your employer

Four months before the beginning of the course if it lasts six months or more, and if it will cover one continuous period or is full-time;
two months before the beginning of the course if it lasts less than six months, is part-time, takes place during several different periods of time or if the application concerns leave for an examination.

Employer’s reply

The employer must reply within 30 days following receipt of your application. He/she can either give his/her agreement, or give reasons for rejecting or postponing the leave (to limit the number of people absent simultaneously or reasons relating to workload).

Your employer may not refuse training leave if you fulfil the conditions for benefiting from it.

Whom should you approach?

In undertakings of over ten employees, you must approach the body to which your undertaking contributes for the financing of individual training leave. In undertakings of under ten employees, contact the joint body for the sector or branch in which your undertaking operates. If there is no such body, contact the regional “Fonds de gestion des congés individuels de formation” (FONGECIF – management fund for individual training leave).

Application for payment of salary and fees

The application for the payment of your salary and training fees (registration, transport and accommodation) must be submitted as soon as possible. The deadline for a reply by the body in question is an average of two months.
The body will decide to grant payment only if the employer authorises your absence (two to four months before the start of the training course).

For further information, contact:

• the staff representatives in the undertaking;
• the management fund for individual training leave (FONGECIF) in your region.

Source: www.Service-Public.fr

Source: European Union
© European Communities, 1995-2006
Reproduction is authorised.