Coachbuilder is desperately looking for labor. Whether it is a health crisis or not, the automobile is a sector in tension which does not always appeal to young people. Result: many companies are struggling to recruit, such as the family body of Sami Khedari in Saint-Martin d’Hères.
Established for 28 years in the metropolis of Grenoble, the Etoile bodywork has always trained young people. Barry and Nicolas learn the basics of the trade under the watchful eye of their apprenticeship master. There is no shortage of work and customers, but it is struggling to recruit labor.
“It’s been about six months that we’ve been looking for. Six months that we’ve been looking for a sheet metal worker and a painter, nowhere to be found. With salaries that will soon border on salaries for engineers or the medical profession, for example. maddening “, Is surprised Sami Khedari, the bodywork director.
“It’s maddening”: a family body from Saint-Martin-d’Hères struggling to recruit for months –
“About ten calls every day”
At the Grenoble Institute of Trades and Techniques (IMT), the automotive sector has around 60 apprentices. Maxence Tringale, apprentice bodybuilder-painter, dropped his studies in archeology for a professionalization contract. The key, for this passionate about vintage cars, the assurance of landing a job.
“What changes me enormously is that before, in archeology, I was always obliged to make motivation letters. Ten or 15 every week, whereas there it is the reverse, he compares. I’m not doing anything, we put my CV with several organizations and I have a dozen phone calls every day without asking anyone. It’s truly pleasent”.
Among the 82 trades offered by the IMT of Grenoble, bodywork-painting in particular attracts young retraining workers. “In the automotive sector, the trades have evolved a lot with much more technicality than before, explains Denise Chiaroni, head of the automotive sector at IMT Grenoble. Jobs that are less physically hard but which require more and more technique. They are affordable for everyone since we have more and more girls in these fields “.
And proof that the sector is not experiencing the crisis: the Etoile bodywork continued to run during the confinement, avoiding partial unemployment for its employees.
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