Professional Mobility

Launching an issue on mobility and career change in the midst of the transport strikes is a strange coincidence.

Launching an issue on mobility and career change in the midst of the transport strikes is a strange coincidence. (Editor's note: this editorial was written on a day of demonstrations, between the sirens of the national police force, the explosions of flash-balls and the songs of trade unions members).

Like public transportation, professional mobility is far from seamless, fluid and congestion-free. Cyclists dream of cycle lanes without delivery trucks parked on them. Motorists dream of wide streets without traffic lights every ten meters. Pedestrians dream of dominating the world and having all the streets to themselves. Living together, as it were...

When it comes to career mobility, it's much the same: companies dream of their employees training themselves and becoming ultra-competent through the magic of digital learning, and complain that they can't find the talent they need. Employees would like to be able to develop their skills and change worlds more easily. The State would like all citizens to activate their personal learning account (CPF) and learn. Living together, as it were...

While part of France is fighting for its pensions, the only certainty of this reform, of which nothing is certain, is that we'll have to work longer, and probably in more than one job.

Let's dream a little: in the ideal world of mobility, you take the company high-speed train that takes you across France and guarantees you a comfortable upward social mobility. Thanks to your magical lifelong learning application, you've of course booked a self-service bike which will be waiting for you at the station exit, enabling you to complete your career path. Once you've arrived at your destination, your company will pay for the trip without any contact, guaranteeing you seamless employability. But that's not going to happen just yet, as evidenced by the hours of traffic jams, bike ransacking and haphazard storage of scooters. Professional mobility is a bit like equality: some are a little more equal than others.

Mobility is far from seamless. It even has a few strings attached. Inequalities between men and women, cognitive biases, lack of knowledge about professions, difficulty making the most of one's skills, limiting beliefs about one's ability to learn, the legacy of poor guidance: on paper, everything is possible, in reality it's hard. Like architects or town planners, we think up magical mobility systems, where all practices will coexist together in peace and harmony. And we end up with traffic jams, misunderstandings and pollution.

To help you see things more clearly and cultivate your optimism, we've put together a special issue on mobility and career transition. From interviews with Marie-Caroline Missir of Digischool and Laetitia Vitaud to Francesca Aceto of SNCF au Féminin, from our column on young old people to that on soft skills, from the development of mobility at Suez to the challenges of female mobility, from HR Tech start-ups to influencers on career guidance without forgetting our white paper on reorientation and career change: here's plenty to fuel your company's - and your own - thinking on the challenges of mobility.

Enjoy your reading!

P.S.: LA Papers cannot be held responsible for any accidents that may occur while reading one of our articles on a scooter or in a car.