The Forge of Talent

How France Is Trying to Solve the Skills Crisis in Its Metallurgy Sector

French metallurgy is at a turning point. With 1.5 million employees spread across 42,000 companies, this sector—which supplies essential components to aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding, and renewable energy—faces a troubling paradox. While the government displays reindustrialization ambitions and 130,000 industrial jobs have been created since 2017, sector companies struggle to recruit. Between 2030 and 2035, the industry will need to hire between 170,000 and 236,000 people per year, according to the branch's prospective study. Yet qualified candidates are sorely lacking.

This skills shortage threatens to sabotage French industrial reconquest. In 2024, despite a positive balance of 89 factory openings and expansions, the pace of reindustrialization slowed compared to the record years of 2022 and 2023. Several industrial sectors, particularly metallurgy and steelmaking, rank among those most exposed to international competition, as the government emphasized in May 2025. In this context, training emerges as the strategic challenge par excellence.

The figures are telling. Metallurgy must recruit 200,000 people per year, across all profiles, from vocational certificates to engineers. Retirements account for about 20 percent of these needs, but the bulk comes from external mobility and net job creation in certain sectors. Electronics, aerospace, and mechanics are driving demand upward. The most sought-after jobs span the entire qualification chain: skilled workers in welding, boiler-making, and machining; maintenance and methods technicians; design and industrialization engineers.

Françoise Diard, Head of Employment at the Union of Metallurgy Industries and Trades, sums up the situation frankly. The industry is evolving toward increasingly automated, more valued, and more rewarding activities, she explains. Operators and technicians will mainly occupy jobs where assistance and analysis are prevalent. Technological developments are galloping, and we must constantly keep up in terms of skills.

This technological transformation is upending traditional trades. Robotics, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and additive manufacturing impose new skills. Today's welder must master computer-assisted processes; a maintenance technician must understand algorithm-driven predictive maintenance. Industry 4.0 is no longer a futuristic concept but a daily reality on the shop floor.

To meet this challenge, the UIMM "La Fabrique de l'Avenir" has considerably strengthened its training system. The network has 130 sites that welcome more than 40,000 young people in work-study programs each year, thanks to 3,500 trainers. The branch has set an ambitious goal: increasing the work-study rate by 3 percent per year to reach nearly 84,500 work-study students by the end of 2027. Companies with 250 employees or more have committed to maintaining a 10 percent work-study rate per year. The UIMM also trains 130,000 employees and 15,000 job seekers annually in its centers.

But the effort doesn't stop at initial training. In December 2024, the metallurgy sector renewed its commitment to employment and vocational training, extending its 2019 national agreement until December 31, 2027. New joint qualification certificates for metallurgy and professional skills certificates will be registered in the National Directory of Professional Certifications. Social partners also plan to create new professional titles targeting jobs or companies that have difficulty recruiting.

Professional reconversion constitutes another major axis. We are implementing several mechanisms to promote it, such as the Pass Industries, created in partnership with France Travail, emphasizes Françoise Diard. We also train people far from employment. The assessment is clear: people in reconversion will take longer to train to reach the required level of technicality, and this can slow them down in their approach, yet reconversion is a key axis for our sector.

The mechanisms are numerous. The Operational Preparation for Employment allows companies to tailor training for candidates before hiring. The Pro-A mechanism accompanies employees already in position to upgrade their skills. The Personal Training Account remains widely mobilized. OPCO 2i, the reference accredited joint collection body, orchestrates the funding for these pathways.

Yet despite these considerable efforts, the system shows its limits. Training provision remains fragmented and lacks visibility. New technologies, from additive manufacturing to digital twins to artificial intelligence applied to processes, struggle to find their place in traditional curricula. Gender diversity remains a major challenge: men represent 79 percent of metallurgy staff, a proportion that has barely changed.

The sector's attractiveness is also questionable. Certainly, salaries in metallurgy are on average 13 percent higher than in other sectors, and 92 percent of employees have permanent contracts. But the image of a dusty, low-innovation industry persists in the collective imagination, particularly among young people and women. The UIMM launched the "Tu As Ta Place" program to promote the welcoming and success of female talent, but progress is slow.

The training issue is set in a complex economic context. French reindustrialization, initiated after the Covid-19 crisis, faces several obstacles. Energy costs, doubled after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, weigh heavily on energy-intensive industries. Olivier Lluansi, professor at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers and author of the book "Réindustrialiser: le défi d'une génération," points this out: before the war, European industry benefited from Russian gas at almost 20 euros per megawatt-hour on average. Now, Europeans pay as much for gas as the Chinese, who continue to benefit from labor costs five times lower. Our only competitive advantage has disappeared.

International competition is intensifying. The United States, with gas at $7-8 per megawatt-hour and massive subsidies via the Inflation Reduction Act, is attracting industrial investments. China combines cheap energy and unbeatable labor costs. In this context, talent training becomes a crucial competitiveness lever—perhaps the only one on which France can truly act.

The industry is evolving toward increasingly automated, more valued, and more rewarding activities. Technological developments are galloping, and we must constantly keep up in terms of skills. — Françoise Diard, Head of Employment at the Union of Metallurgy Industries and Trades

Hubert Mongon, General Delegate of the UIMM, insists that the transmission of technical and industrial skills is fundamental for the sector's future. French metallurgy must bet on the quality of its workforce, its capacity for innovation, and the excellence of its training to compensate for structural disadvantages.

The government has grasped the scale of the challenge. In May 2025, the minister in charge of industry and energy presented an update on reindustrialization, emphasizing the need to strengthen links between school and business, in order to attract more women and men to industry, better publicize its trades, and meet the skills needs of our sectors. Support for industrial decarbonization was amplified in 2025 with an additional 1.6 billion euros in budget credits voted in the finance law to accompany the 50 most emitting sites.

The apprenticeship reform, carried by the Avenir Professionnel law, and that of vocational high schools aim to adapt the training system to the needs of the economy. But the transformation is slow. Staff numbers should increase by 50 percent over the next five years in UIMM training centers, according to the organization's forecasts. An ambitious goal that requires massive investments in equipment, premises, and trainers.

Prospective studies to 2035 outline several scenarios. In the most favorable scenario, called "Industrial Renewal and Virtuous Growth," French metallurgy could reach 1.56 million employees, representing annual growth of 0.6 percent. This scenario relies on successful reindustrialization, driven by the ecological transition, electric vehicles, renewable energies, and nuclear power. Skilled workers and technicians would be the primary beneficiaries of this growth.

But this optimistic scenario assumes that France solves its skills equation. Companies must be able to recruit quickly, train effectively, and retain their talent. The certification system must evolve faster to integrate new jobs and new skills. Bridges between initial training and continuing education must be streamlined. Gender diversity must become a reality, not just a slogan.

Some promising innovations are emerging. Companies are creating their own internal academies to train their employees in specific technologies. Digital platforms enable individualized pathways, combining online modules and practical training. Virtual and augmented reality are beginning to transform the learning of technical gestures. Learning factories—workshops reproducing real production conditions—are multiplying.

The question remains open: will these initiatives be enough? French metallurgy needs a revolution in its training, not just an evolution. We must completely rethink pathways, break down silos between national education, apprenticeship, and continuing education, invest massively in cutting-edge equipment, and make trades attractive to younger generations. Time is running out. Each year of delay widens the gap with foreign competitors and further compromises reindustrialization ambitions.

French metallurgy is at a crossroads. It has assets: a strong industrial tradition, leading companies in their fields, a quality research and development ecosystem. But without the talent to bring these assets to life, everything else becomes vain. The forging of talent may be the most important project of the coming decade for French industry.