Des carrières aux parcours… en passant par la compétence

Do the social uses of the notion of competence affect operatives’ careers? A linkage between competency-based-management and careers is not to be taken for granted when competence is seen in relation to changes in work. In France, “policies of competence” entail modifying the specifications for managing the future of wage-earners, since a rationale grounded on the idea of a career yields to one based on the notion of an itinerary. Firms have supported the latter as a way to make mobility more fluid and to ensure the recognition of qualifications. However, this rationale based on occupational itineraries runs afoul of the segmented in-house labor market, which unfailingly turns an itinerary into an obstacle course. As a result, careers are “deinstitutionalized”, a trend to be related to the gradual institutionalization of “secure itineraries” with incentives coming from public employment and training policies. Invoking competence in order to make itineraries secure is part of an argument about the “destabilization of employment” that justifies delegating to individuals the management of their future and legitimates the idea that employability is to be the major counterpart for motivating wage-earners. For lack of new regulations for work throughout the life course, the rationale of an itinerary risks making the marketplace the major source of (dis)order in personal destinies.