“The CAE allows me to do an interesting job that makes me want to take the appropriate exams.” For Julie Malthet, a library assistant since November 2005, this job is an experience in the national education sector that she could never have done without the CAE. “I did not choose this job for the money, because I prefer a poorly paid part-time job rich in experiences to a full-time one that is uninteresting and with no future plans,” she confides. Erika Vinson, a school life and reprography assistant, agrees with her: “I am preparing for a CAPES in Italian, and for me, this job is a springboard to a job in the school life sector.” However, she regrets that the years spent in this high school are not counted by the education system as two years of experience, unlike her previous job as a language assistant in Italy.
Because it should be known that in education, the conditions of the CAEs change and are “regulated” by the ministry. Ordinarily, the contract allows working a minimum of 20 hours a week, but if the employer or the position requires it, the number of hours can be increased. In education, the contract is for 20 hours, no more. Anne-Cécile Mathieu, a secretarial assistant, had just passed her BTS in management assistance when she agreed to sign a CAE for the secretarial assistance position in school life in November 2005. She is very satisfied with it and does not complain about the responsibilities assigned to her. However, after a year she realizes that she is nobody’s assistant and manages school life alone. “The job does not match the reality. I am required to do management work in 20 hours a week when my predecessor did it in 35 hours with a CES,” she declares.
But most importantly, the CAE also promotes the right to training for better integration. Although it is not mandatory, as emphasized by an employee of the DDTE in Nice: “we refer those interested in training to common law or the regional council because the new role of the DDTE since the creation of the CAE is, among other things, to serve as a legal reference.” But in education, CAEs essentially become 20-hour contracts, and the right to potentially undergo training is denied. Upon signing the CAE, new employees already know they will not undergo training and are required to check the “NO” box.
And yet, between the CAE and the CES, the differences are almost nonexistent. According to the DDTE, three aspects have really changed: the first concerns its partitioning. That is, before, the contract concerned all publics, now it only affects people under 26 and those benefiting from minimum social benefits (RMI, etc.). The recruitment sector has also changed and now only concerns the non-commercial sector. Then, “instead of giving more money to people who stay at home, this type of contract reactivates social minimums by providing aid to partners.” Finally, an additional administrative power is given to the Regional Council, which no longer needs to go through the state to make decisions.
Mr. Boyer, director of the Lycée “Les Palmiers,” is very satisfied with the people on assisted contracts he has recruited but remains clear-sighted: “we are frustrated by the lack of real training in the long and medium term concerning the positions to be filled. It is a public service drift to need to recruit private law contracts.” And when questions about the “20-hour maximum” work per week and the “non-possibility” of training arise, Mr. Boyer remains frank: “in the fall of 2005, the ministry strongly advised us to recruit mainly young people under 26. Because they cost less to the national education system since the implementation of the CAE, which favors obtaining subsidies for employers.” It should be known that a young person under 26 entitles a 90% aid, and if they have been unemployed for more than a year, the aid is 95%. While those over 26 allow only a 75% subsidy. At Lycée “Les Palmiers,” out of the twelve CAEs, six are under 26. The deputy principal, Mme Molle, explains that for reasons of competence, people over 26 were recruited. But to do this, the establishment had to request authorization, case by case, from the ministry. Concerning training, the lycée cannot finance it as it no longer benefits from CNASEA subsidies.
On the scale of the CAEs, the lack of means in national education is really felt, as it exploits the right to subsidies to the maximum in order to save money. For the 2006 intake in the department, 2500 posts in CAE and CAV (contrats d’avenir) were planned, but 2300 contracts were signed. Because CAVs and CAEs for those over 26 are more expensive. Result: 200 fewer posts. The government congratulates itself on the reduction in the unemployment rate, now at 8.9%, linked, among other things, to the social cohesion program implemented. But these jobs in CAE, even if they represent 306,000 positions since May 2005, are not renewable after two years and do not offer, in the national education sector, any possibility of career advancement. Certainly, for the moment, these types of “aided contracts” allow several thousand people to work, but for how much longer and in what form.
