The industry has been facing a major challenge in recent years: attracting new generations who are entering the job market to face the retirement of a large part of their employees.
Never in recent history has the industry faced such recruitment challenges. According to a 2023 Dares study, the number of vacant industrial jobs increased threefold between 2017 and 2022, reaching around 60,000.
According to French Fab, 20% of manufacturers even refuse orders because they lack internal skills. But why do young people seem to be leaving the industry, and what solutions are being considered to reverse this trend?
The new generation of “digital native” talents, sensitive to new technologies and followers of horizontal management, have different aspirations from their predecessors! They are looking for more agile work environments, offering flexibility, autonomy, and rapid decision-making.
However, the industry can sometimes be perceived as traditional and not very innovative compared to other sectors. Many young people have a slightly outdated image of the industry, which is still associated with hardship.
Traditional industries can also be associated with a negative impact on the environment or with unsustainable production practices, which deters many young talent from engaging in them.
Finally, often located in rural areas, industrial companies are far from training infrastructures, making it difficult to attract young interns, apprentices or graduates.
“Industry jobs have changed so quickly that it is essential to make them known to young people, and to promote all the opportunities available in the industry.” Romy Christin, Quality Manager at Mécapro Centre. (UIMM Interview - 2022)
Some companies in the industry have taken on the problem head-on and are already offering innovative or original initiatives to attract young talent to the industry. This is the case of Mécapro or Naval Group, which regularly organize visits to their structures for professors and students in order to help them discover their jobs. 3D design school projects also allow young people to be immersed in concrete projects.
Make young generations dream by addressing current topics: ecological transition, factory of the future, feminization of jobs... In recent years, thousands of events have been organized all over France to try to strengthen the attractiveness of the sector!
Large-scale communication campaigns are launched to promote industrial jobs to young talent. For example, think of the ministry's campaign.” With the industry, my adventure begins ”.
The OPCO 2i has also launched an ambitious communication campaign. Its objective: transforming the image of the industry and create vocations and thus fill the 70,000 vacancies of manufacturers who are unable to recruit.
At its level, each company in the industry can contribute to make your employer brand more attractive with young talents. In particular, it is imperative to modernise work tools as much as possible, communication, and training to make them more effective and more relevant for the younger generations.
Too often, there is still a huge gap between digital tools used in personal life and professional tools. If this difference was still accepted by previous generations, Digital Natives may be less interested in operating procedures in paper format for example!
Find out in our article 7 concrete actions to take to attract young talent to the industry.
“With Komin, we documented our operating procedures 10x faster than with paper”
- J. Cerruti (Methods & Industrialization Manager)
