Retenir les apprentis dans l’entreprise et le métier : enjeux du mentorat dans le secteur de l’artisanat

The purpose of this thesis is to study the mentoring functions exercised by apprenticeship masters in the craft industry. This issue echoes the difficulties small business leaders may have to retain new staff trained through apprenticeship in a trade suffering from a structural shortage of qualified workforce. Drawing on social exchange theory, this thesis focuses on the impact of mentoring on the intent to leave. Two mechanisms have been identified and empirically explored: the values clarity mechanism and the mediating commitment mechanism. This double mechanism, operating on both the organizational and occupational level, was instrumental in the understanding of how mentoring functions, and the role model activity in particular, have a positive impact on short-term apprentice retention in the business, and long-term retention in the profession. 230 French Compagnons apprentices have been interviewed with questionnaires after 6 months in the business. The collected data has been processed statistically using the structural equation modeling approach