Luxury group LVMH completed a tour of French cities for its Métiers d’Excellence vocational training programme at the end of March with an event in Lyon, writes Leatherbiz.

The group created the Métiers d’Excellence initiative in 2014 to establish a formal programme for making sure the artisan leather skills and other handcraft traditions its brands rely on pass on to new generations of workers.

The Lyon event took place on March 29 and followed similar events in Paris, Reims and Clichy-sus-Bois (a suburb of Paris with high rates of unemployment).

LVMH will now take the tour to Italy, starting with a Métiers d’Excellence event in Florence on April 15.

The group has said it is aiming to recruit 3,500 new employees this year and it hopes people who attend the events will fill some of these vacancies. “We want to inspire true vocations in highly-skilled métiers that promise wonderful careers,” said the group’s executive vice-president for human resources and synergies, Chantal Gaemperle.