Your First 30 Days in an Apprenticeship: The Checklist to Get It Right (and Not Burn Your Chances) for the 2026 Intake

Your contract has been signed since July, the training centre has sent you the calendar, and you spent the summer sorting out accommodation and transport. What's left is the part nobody talks about: the Monday morning when you push open the company door with the vague feeling that everyone knows what they're doing except you.

This first month isn't just a settling-in period. It's a legally distinctive window — the famous 45 days — a moment when a dozen administrative procedures kick in at once, and above all the period during which your apprenticeship supervisor forms an opinion that will be hard to change afterwards. Many early terminations have their roots in these four weeks, not in technical skills.

Here's the complete checklist, updated for the 2026 intake.

The least-known rule: your 45 days are not 45 calendar days

This is the point apprentices get wrong most often, and it's worth stating up front.

For an apprenticeship contract, Article L. 6222-18 of the French Labour Code provides that the contract may be freely terminated by either party until the expiry of a period of 45 days, consecutive or not, of practical training within the company. Translation: weeks spent at the training centre don't count. If your rhythm is 3 weeks in the company for 1 week at the centre, your 45 days actually stretch over nearly three calendar months.

Two practical consequences:

• You're not "in the clear" after six weeks. Many apprentices ease off in October thinking the period is behind them, when they're still in it.
• Symmetrically, if the company isn't right for you, you have a longer exit window than you think — no reason to give, no notice period, simply a written notification sent to the employer, the training centre and the skills operator (OPCO).

Note: with a professionalisation contract, the logic is different. It's an ordinary fixed-term (or open-ended) employment contract, with a standard trial period — generally one day per week of contract, capped at two weeks for a fixed-term contract of six months or less, and one month beyond that. Don't apply the 45-day rule if your contract is a "contrat pro".

Once that period has passed, termination becomes far more tightly regulated: agreement of both parties, referral to the chamber's mediator, or the employment tribunal. In other words, the first month is when your room for manoeuvre is greatest — in both directions.

Week 1: the eight administrative checks

The company handles most of it, but it regularly forgets documents that concern you directly. Work through this list within the first five days.

What to check	Who handles it	Why it's urgent
Contract (Cerfa FA13) filed with the OPCO	Employer	Without filing, no funding for the training centre and no cost coverage
Signed copy of the contract in your possession	You must ask for it	The basis for any later dispute
Training agreement between the centre and the company	Training centre	Must be annexed to the contract
Pre-hire declaration (DPAE)	Employer	Activates your social security rights
Social security affiliation / Vitale card update	You, via your Ameli account	You move from the student scheme to the employee scheme
Company health insurance: enrolment or waiver	You	A waiver must be requested at hiring, not three months later
Information and prevention medical appointment	Employer (occupational health and prevention service)	Within 2 months, and before hiring for minors and regulated work
"Étudiant des métiers" card	Training centre	Transport, cinema and catering discounts — often forgotten

Two traps come up every year. The first: health insurance. Enrolling in the company's supplementary health cover is in principle compulsory, but waivers exist, notably if you're already covered as a dependant under a parent's group policy. That waiver must be requested in writing at the time of hiring; miss the deadline and you pay contributions for the year.

The second: the Étudiant des métiers card, issued by the training centre to apprentices on contracts of at least one year. It gives access to the same rates as a standard student card (cinemas, transport, Crous university restaurants). If your centre hasn't handed it over after three weeks, chase it up: it's provided for by Article L. 6222-36-1 of the Labour Code, it's not a favour.

What you need to get from your apprenticeship supervisor before the end of week 2

An apprenticeship supervisor isn't a manager like any other. The Labour Code assigns them a precise mission: to help the apprentice acquire the skills matching the qualification sought and the target certification. They must have the time needed to support you and may supervise no more than two apprentices at once (three including a repeating student).

In practice, they're often overloaded and expect you to structure the relationship. Take the initiative and secure these four things:

1. A fixed weekly 30-minute check-in, booked into their calendar. A recurring slot is worth ten follow-up emails.
2. The syllabus for your qualification, read together. Many supervisors have never opened it and hand out tasks unrelated to the skills being assessed.
3. A written list of three concrete assignments for the term. This document will also serve for your apprenticeship logbook and for the visit from your training centre's referring instructor.
4. The procedure for raising a problem: who do you turn to if they're absent, on leave, or if the relationship isn't working?

Write everything down in a dedicated notebook. In most departments, taking handwritten notes during briefings is still better received than typing on a keyboard, and a simple hardcover notebook will spare you from asking about the same procedure three times — the number one beginner's mistake.

Your hours: what the company can ask of you, and what it can't

An apprentice is an employee. So you follow the company's collective working hours — usually 35 hours a week — with one crucial nuance: time spent at the training centre counts as effective working time, paid as such. Nobody can ask you to "make up" your class weeks, or to use holiday to attend training.

Three rules to know from month one:

• Paid leave: 2.5 working days per month worked, like any employee. Training centre periods are not holidays. Apprentices under 21 can request additional unpaid leave to reach 30 working days.
• Exam revision leave: 5 paid working days in the month before the exams, taken on top of paid holiday (Article L. 6222-35). Book it very early in the year — it's lost if you don't ask.
• Minors: a maximum of 8 hours per day and 35 hours per week, night work prohibited, with regulated sector-specific exemptions (construction, hospitality, bakery) since the 2022 decrees.

On overtime, the position is simple: it's allowed for those over 18, but it must be declared and paid at an enhanced rate. An apprentice who stays until 8 p.m. every evening "to show motivation" generally gets nothing out of it except a standard they'll be criticised for no longer meeting in January.

The mistakes that burn an apprentice in four weeks

Supervisors surveyed by training centres and chamber networks invariably cite the same sources of disappointment. Almost none of them are technical shortcomings.

• Not letting anyone know when you're late or absent. A text at 8:50 a.m. about a 9 a.m. start is acceptable; two hours of silence is not. In case of sick leave, both the employer AND the training centre must be informed, with the medical certificate sent within 48 hours.
• Waiting to be given work. The phrase that saves you: "I've finished file X — should I move on to Y or take on something else?"
• Asking zero questions in week one, then fifteen in week three. Group them, note them down, and unload at the weekly check-in.
• Treating training centre weeks as time off. Your supervisor sees the calendar and knows what you're doing there — or not doing.
• Confusing transparency with venting. What you say about the company in your class group chat travels faster than you'd imagine.
• Neglecting confidentiality. Figures, clients, contracts: the duty of discretion applies to you just as it does to any other employee.

Conversely, what makes a positive impression within a month comes down to three things: arriving five minutes early, delivering what you promised on the date you promised, and being able to say "I don't know, I'll look into it" rather than improvising.

Kitting yourself out without breaking the bank

The employer must provide the means to work — workstation, software, personal protective equipment where required (the INRS reminds employers that supplying PPE is entirely at the company's expense, including for apprentices). Never pay for your own PPE.

That said, a few personal purchases genuinely improve comfort in those first weeks:

• Something to carry a laptop and a folder between the company and the training centre. A laptop backpack with a padded compartment beats a tote bag: you'll make that journey more than a hundred times over the year.
• Something to cope with an open-plan office or a noisy workshop. Noise-cancelling headphones are the one purchase almost every office-based apprentice recommends after six months.
• A water bottle and a lunch box. Meal vouchers aren't a given, and the lunch budget is the item that spirals fastest when you're earning 800 to 1,200 euros a month.
• A diary or planner to map out the alternating weeks visually: a paper week-per-view diary remains unbeatable for picturing a 3/1 rhythm across the year.

Your first payslip: the three lines to check

Your first salary usually lands at the end of September or end of October depending on your start date. Three checks are enough.

Line	What you should see	Common error
Pay basis	The percentage of the minimum wage (SMIC) matching your age and your contract year	Contract year confused with academic year
Hours	151.67 h for full time, training centre weeks included	Training centre weeks deducted or unpaid
Contributions	Exemption from the employee share up to 79% of the SMIC for apprentices	Deductions wrongly applied

Since the 2025 Finance Act, the threshold for exempting apprentices from employee social contributions has been lowered to 50% of the SMIC and part of the salary has become taxable above a ceiling; check the settings your employer has applied if the amounts surprise you. If in doubt, the public apprenticeship service (Ministry of Labour website) and URSSAF publish up-to-date rate tables, and your training centre has an administrative contact who can arbitrate.

A gap of one or two percentage points over twelve months adds up to several hundred euros. Flag it straight away, politely and in writing: an adjustment in October is a non-event, the same request in June turns into a conflict.

The first 30 days at a glance

Day	Action
D-3	Confirm by email your arrival time, who to ask for at reception, and the expected dress code
D1	Note down names, request access (badge, email, tools), find out break times
D5	Check the contract has been filed with the OPCO and claim your signed copy
D7	Set up the recurring weekly check-in with your apprenticeship supervisor
D10	Sort out health insurance, Vitale card, Étudiant des métiers card
D15	Write down the three assignments for the term and have them approved
D20	Open your apprenticeship logbook and record your first activities
D25	Prepare for the visit from the training centre's referring instructor
D30	Informal mid-point review: "what should I be improving?"

The day-30 question is the one almost nobody asks. Yet it's worth more than any speech about motivation: it proves you can take criticism, and it gives you three months to correct course before the formal assessment.

And if it goes badly?

A bad first month isn't a death sentence, but you need to act quickly and in the right order.

1. Talk to your apprenticeship supervisor first, factually, about one specific point. "I don't have enough work" is a valid statement; "I'm bored" is not.
2. Then contact your training centre referent. Every centre must appoint a referent responsible for monitoring and mediation with companies. That's their job, not an act of betrayal.
3. Then the apprenticeship mediator at the chamber of commerce, trades or agriculture. Referral is free and suspends the termination period for 15 days.
4. As a last resort, termination. During the 45 days of practical training, it's unilateral and requires no reason. Beyond that, it requires written agreement from both parties or an employment tribunal ruling.

One reassuring point to keep in mind: losing your contract no longer means losing your year. Since the Avenir Professionnel Act, an apprentice whose contract is terminated can continue training at the centre for six months while looking for a new employer. The window is short, but it exists.

The first 30 days require no particular talent and no over-investment. They require consistency, a few emails written at the right moment, and a careful reading of three documents most apprentices never look at: their contract, their qualification syllabus, and their first payslip.

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