Internship and establishment of the official

Verified 01 June 2026 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

You've just been recruited as official ? You are subject to a probationary period before becoming established. If you are already a permanent civil servant, you may also be subject to a probationary period in the course of a career if you change body or framework of jobs following an internal competition or promotion. We present you the information to know according to your public service of belonging (State - FPE, territorial - FPT, hospital - FPH).

The internship is a probationary period, i.e. a probationary period, the purpose of which is to enable the employer administration to ensure that you demonstrate professional abilities to perform the duties corresponding to your grade.

According to the body in which you are appointed as a public servant trainee, the probationary period may include a period of mandatory training.

At the end of the probationary period, you are eligible to become a permanent civil servant.

You are appointed as a public servant trainee when you are recruited into the state civil service as a result of contest or a procedure for recruitment without competition.

You may also be appointed as a probationary official in the course of a career when you change body as a result of a competition or internal promotion.

For example, probationary exemptions are provided for staff members admitted to an internal competition for access to a category C State corps, unless otherwise provided for in the particular statute of the corps concerned.

If you are already a full civil servant and subject to a traineeship, you remain in your previous grade and are seconded for traineeship in your new grade.

If the special status of your new corps provides for an exemption from probationary periods, you will be directly established in your new grade.

Where your appointment as a probationary official occurs as a result of your admission to a competition or as a result of your internal promotion, you may, in certain cases, request the postponement of your appointment.

Thus, you can request the postponement of your appointment if your appointment is not not possible due to your health condition.

In support of your application, you must provide a medical certificate from a licensed physician.

In the event of a challenge to the medical certificate by the appointing authority, the request for postponement shall be submitted to the medical advice.

You can also request a deferral of your appointment as a probationary official if you are pregnant.

Whether you request a postponement of your appointment as a probationary public servant because of your state of health or because of your state of pregnancy, the postponement cannot exceed one year.

However, when the internship takes place in a school or training institute, your appointment may be postponed until the date the next promotion enters training.

You can also request a deferral of your appointment as a probationary official if you meet the following 3 conditions:

You reside in an overseas territory on the date of your admission to the competition or internal promotion
And you must start, within less than 2 months of your admission, a probationary period or a training period in the metropolitan area
And you justify difficulties of installation in metropolitan France related to your personal or family situation.

This deferral may not exceed one year. However, when the internship takes place in a school or training institute, your appointment may be postponed until the date the next promotion enters training.

It is also possible to request the postponement of your appointment as a probationary official if you are already an official and you are in one of the following situations at the time of your appointment as a probationary official:

You are in parental leave
Or you're in parental attendance leave
Or you're in caregiver leave.

Your appointment as a probationary public servant may be postponed until the end of your leave.

General rules

Your internship can take place on your workstation and include training periods.

It can also take place in a school or training institute specialized in the vocational training of civil servants.

Some of these schools are ministry-specific and allow for employment in the ministry concerned (in central government or in devolved services). These include the École nationale des greffes (ENG), the École nationale de police (ENP) or the École nationale de la magistrature (ENM).

Other schools are interdepartmental and provide access to jobs from different ministries. These are the Regional Institutes of Administration (IRA) and the National Institute of Public Service (INSP).

Where the traineeship takes place in a school or training institute, it shall comprise a continuous or discontinuous period of teaching and a continuous or discontinuous period of work placement within the administrations.

During your internship, you may not be transferred, seconded, made available or made available.

In the event of the absence of the probationary official from one or more assessment tests

If the internship takes place in whole or in part in a school or training institute, and if you are absent for a serious reason from an examination sanctioned by a grade or other form of evaluation, you are authorized to take a new examination or evaluation organized by the school or training institute.

If the school or training institute is unable to organize a new test, you shall be assigned the grade corresponding to the average or median of the grades obtained by the other probationary officials. The scoring method chosen is fixed, for each training, by ministerial decree.

At the end of the training, the jury (or the competent authority) examines whether your absences from the tests or evaluations that could not be replaced prevent the assessment of your aptitude, in particular on the basis of the number of your absences and your results in the tests or evaluations in which you participated.

If the jury (or the competent authority) considers that your ability to perform the duties corresponding to your grade cannot be assessed, you are entitled to complete all or part of the training period at a later date.

In case of pregnancy

When the internship takes place in whole or in part in a school or training institute and when you inform the school or training institute of your pregnancy status, the institution receives you in an interview to inform you of your rights.

The establishment offers accommodation measures compatible with the course of your training.

The normal duration of the internship is determined by the special status of the body in which you are appointed as a probationary official.

The normal duration of the internship may vary depending on whether you access the body by competition or internal promotion.

If, at the end of the normal probationary period, your professional skills are not considered sufficient to allow your tenure, your probationary period may be extended.

The maximum possible duration of extension is determined by the particular status of the body.

FYI

When your internship is extended, the extension period is not taken into account in the calculation of your seniority at the time of your tenure but it is taken into account for retirement.

You can request permission to work part-time for the same reasons and under the same conditions as a regular civil servant, unless your internship involves professional education or must be completed in a training institution (Ira, INSP, etc.).

If you are doing your internship part-time, the duration of your internship is increased proportionally to be equivalent to that of a civil servant intern working full-time.

For example, if you have to complete a one-year internship, depending on your part-time ratio, the duration of your internship is as follows:

Tableau - Duration of internship according to part-time work
Amount of working time	Duration of the internship
90%	1 year 1 month 10 days
80%	1 year 3 months
70%	1 year 5 months 4 days
60%	1 year 8 months
50%	2 years

You are paid on the basis of 1^er step of your grade.

If you were already a regular public servant before being appointed as a probationary public servant, you may choose to retain, during the probationary period, the salary to which you were entitled in your original body or employment.

The continuation of your previous index treatment is possible within the limit of the index treatment to which you can claim during your tenure.

Your previous service is taken into account according to the provisions of the particular status of the body in which you are appointed as an intern and determines the step to which you are classified and your remuneration.

As a probationary civil servant, you have the same rights and obligations as a regular civil servant:

Your employer administration must provide you with the essential information and rules concerning the performance of your duties.

You are entitled to leave and special leave of absence to which staff members are entitled on the same terms as regular staff members insofar as such leave, special leave of absence and conditions are compatible with your particular situation.

Annual leave and leave of absence

You are entitled to annual leave of the same duration and under the same conditions as a regular official.

You are also entitled to leave of absence, in particular for family reasons, under the same conditions as a regular civil servant: for childcare or sick child, if you marry or you pass, at the death of a loved one.

Reminder

As a trainee civil servant, you cannot open a time savings account (CET). If you already have a TEC (as a regular or contract civil servant before your appointment as a trainee), you can neither use the days saved nor save days during your traineeship.

Leave for health reasons

When your health condition requires it, you can take one of the following leave:

Sick leave
Long-term Sick Leave (LSL)
Long-term leave (LTA)
Leave for Temporary Disability Attributable to Service - Citis (up to 5 years if you are not a permanent civil servant in another body or employment).

If, at the end of a leave for health reasons, you are unable to resume your duties, you can be placed on unpaid leave, for a maximum of one year renewable twice.

The placing on unpaid leave and its renewal shall be pronounced after the medical advice.

If, at the end of paid sick leave or a period of unpaid sick leave, you are found permanently unfit to resume your duties, you shall be dismissed.

However, if you are a permanent civil servant in another body or employment, your probationary secondment is terminated and you are placed at the disposal of your home administration.

You may be allowed to resume your work at part-time for therapeutic reasons under the same conditions as a regular civil servant unless your internship involves vocational education or must be completed in a school or training institute.

Leave for family reasons

You can take unpaid leave at your request of a maximum of one year, renewable twice for the following reasons:

Caring for your spouse or partner Civil partnerships, a child or a ascending as a result of an accident or serious illness
Giving care to a dependent child, to your Civil partnership or partner or to an ascendant with a disability that requires the presence of a third person
Raising a child under 12
Follow your husband or Civil partnership partner who is forced to move for business reasons to a location far from where you work.

You must ask to resume your duties at least 2 months before the end of your current leave.

You can also take the following holidays:

Leave of absence maternity or of adoption
3 days leave for birth or arrival of a child placed for adoption
Paternity and childcare leave.

You can also take the following holidays:

Parental Leave : if you are a permanent civil servant in another body or employment, seconded on probation, that secondment shall be terminated during your parental leave. You are automatically reinstated on secondment at the end of your parental leave for the remainder of the internship period to be completed.
Family solidarity leave
Parental Attendance Leave
Caregiver Leave.

Leave for personal convenience

You can be placed at your request and subject to service requirements, on leave for personal convenience for up to 3 months.

The leave is not unpaid.

Leave to prepare for or admit to a competition

You can apply for unpaid leave if you are admitted to:

A preparatory cycle for a competition for admission to the civil service, to the international civil service, to a post as an official of parliamentary assemblies, a magistrate of the judicial order or a member of the military
Or in a training institution through which the recruitment of civil servants, magistrates of the judicial order and military personnel is carried out
Or to a competition for admission to the civil service, to the international civil service, to employment as an official of parliamentary assemblies, as a magistrate of the judicial order or as a member of the military

The leave ends at the end of the internship, school or preparatory cycle for the accomplishment of which the leave was granted to you.

You cannot have more than one leave at the same time for these different reasons.

Annual leave has no effect on the duration of your internship.

If you have been granted parental leave, the end date of your probationary period is postponed by a number of working days equal to the number of days and, possibly, half-days of parental leave used.

The same applies if you have taken family solidarity leave or caregiver leave.

The total duration of paid leave of any kind from which you have benefited other than annual leave is only taken into account as probationary time for one 10^e the duration of the internship. If the total duration of such paid leave exceeds 10^e depending on the duration of your internship, your internship will be extended accordingly.

However, your full tenure takes effect on the date of the end of the statutory duration of the probationary period, excluding the extension due to your leave if you have benefited from:

Maternity or adoption leave
3 days leave for the birth or arrival of a child placed for adoption
Paternity and childcare leave
Extra birth leave.

Example :

You are appointed as an intern for one year from 1^er June to 31 May of the following year and you will receive a maternity leave of 112 days and an additional birth leave of 30 days during your internship. Your internship is extended by 106 days (142 - 36 days – one 10^e of one year). The decision of tenure only takes place from September 15th taking into account the extension of your internship but takes effect on 1^er June.

If your probationary period is interrupted for at least 3 years due to successive holidays of any kind, other than annual leave, you must resume your entire probationary period at the end of your last leave.

If your internship is interrupted for less than 3 years, you may not be admitted to the permanent position until you have completed the additional internship period necessary to reach the normal duration of the internship provided for by the particular status of your body.

At the end of your probationary period, if your employer administration considers that you have demonstrated the professional skills required to perform the duties corresponding to your grade, you are tenured.

If not, you are dismissed for incompetence.

Titularization

At the end of your probationary period, you will be granted a full term if your employer administration considers that you have the professional skills required to perform the duties corresponding to your grade.

Your administration issues a tenure order.

If you were already a regular civil servant in another government agency, a territorial employment manager or a hospital department before your appointment as a civil servant trainee, you become the holder of the grade on which you were appointed trainee and you lose your former grade.

If you belonged to the territorial public service or hospital, you are expelled from the management in your employment framework or your body of origin.

Dismissal for Professional Insufficiency

If your employer administration determines that you do not have the professional skills required to perform the duties corresponding to your grade, it may dismiss you for professional insufficiency.

Your employer administration may dismiss you for professional incompetence in progress or at the end of your internship.

Your employer administration may dismiss you for professional incompetence in the course of an internship if you have performed at least half of your internship.

To pronounce your dismissal, your employer administration must follow the same procedure as that provided in case of disciplinary sanction, unless your professional competence is to be assessed by a jury.

Thus, the decision to dismiss is subject to the prior opinion of the Joint Administrative Commission (JAC).

You are entitled to full disclosure of your individual file and all supporting documents.

The administration must inform you of this right.

During the procedure, you are entitled to the assistance of the defenders of your choice.

If you were already a permanent civil servant in another body of the State, a territorial employment manager or a hospital body before your appointment as a civil servant trainee, your secondment for traineeship is terminated and you are reinstated in your body or framework of jobs of origin.

You are not entitled to any severance pay.

According to the body in which you are appointed as a public servant trainee, the probationary period may include a period of mandatory training.

At the end of the probationary period, you are eligible to become a permanent civil servant.

You are appointed as a public servant trainee when you are recruited into the territorial public service as a result of contest or a procedure for recruitment without competition.

You may also be appointed as a probationary official in the course of a career when you change employment framework as a result of a competition or internal promotion.

The special status of an official may provide for a probationary period to be waived for an official already in possession of at least 2 years of actual public service in a post of the same nature.

If you are already a full civil servant and subject to a traineeship, you remain in your previous grade and are seconded for traineeship in your new grade.

If the special status of your new job manager provides for an internship waiver, you are directly established in your new grade.

You can request a deferral of your appointment as a probationary official if you are already an official and you find yourself in one of the following situations at the time of your appointment:

You benefit from a parental attendance leave
Or you get a caregiver leave.

Your appointment as a probationary public servant may be postponed until the end of your leave.

If you are contract on permanent employment, you may be appointed as a probationary official by the territorial authority, at the latest at the end of your contract, if your appointment as a probationary official is to take place in a framework of jobs whose missions include the job you hold.

Your internship can take place on your workstation and include training periods, in particular in the National Specialized Institutes of Territorial Studies (INSET) if you are appointed as a trainee civil servant Category A after competition (excluding police and fire departments)

If you are appointed as a Public Servant Trainee in one of the following positions, you are appointed by the CNFPT and complete your internship at the Institut national des études territoriales (Inet):

Administrators
Chief Engineers
Heritage Curators
Curators of libraries.

Your internship at the Inet includes periods of theoretical training and periods of community work.

The normal duration of the internship is fixed at 1 year, unless otherwise provided for in the particular Staff Regulations of the post in which you are appointed as an intern.

If, at the end of the normal probationary period, your professional skills are not considered sufficient to allow your tenure, your probationary period may be extended for a maximum of one year.

FYI

When your internship is extended, the extension period is not taken into account in the calculation of your seniority at the time of your tenure, but it is taken into account for retirement.

You can request permission to work part-time for the same reasons and under the same conditions as a regular civil servant, unless you have to complete a period of probation in a training institution (Inet or Inset) or if your probationary period includes vocational education.

If you do your internship part-time, the duration of your internship is then increased proportionally to be equivalent to that of a civil servant intern working full-time.

Thus, depending on your part-time ratio, the duration of your internship is as follows:

Tableau - Duration of internship according to part-time work
Amount of working time	Duration of the internship
90%	1 year 1 month 10 days
80%	1 year 3 months
70%	1 year 5 months 4 days
60%	1 year 8 months
50%	2 years

You are paid on the basis of 1^er step of your grade.

If you were already a regular public servant before being appointed as a probationary public servant, you can choose to retain, during the probationary period, the salary to which you were entitled in your original employment or body.

If you are appointed as an intern in a category A position, and if you were previously a public servant or a contract employee, you will receive the salary corresponding to your previous situation if this salary is higher than that to which you are entitled in the position in which you are appointed as an intern.

The index salary thus received is at most equal to that corresponding to the last step of the grade to which you are appointed as a trainee.

Your previous services are taken into account in accordance with the provisions of the particular status of the employment framework in which you are appointed as an intern and determine the step to which you are classified and your remuneration.

As a probationary civil servant, you have the same rights and obligations as a regular civil servant:

Your employer administration must provide you with the essential information and rules concerning the performance of your duties.

You shall be entitled to leave and special leave of absence to which staff members are entitled on the same terms as regular staff members insofar as such leave, special leave of absence and conditions are compatible with your particular situation.

Annual leave and leave of absence

You are entitled to annual leave of the same duration and under the same conditions as a regular official.

Reminder

As a trainee civil servant, you cannot open a time savings account (CET). If you already have a TEC (as a regular or contract civil servant before your appointment as a trainee) you can neither use the days saved nor save days during your traineeship.

Leave for health reasons

When your health condition requires it, you can take one of the following leave:

If, at the end of a leave for health reasons, you are unable to resume your duties, you can be placed on unpaid leave, for a maximum of one year renewable twice.

The placing on unpaid leave and its renewal shall be pronounced after the medical advice.

If, at the end of paid sick leave or a period of unpaid sick leave, you are found permanently unfit to resume your duties, you shall be dismissed.

However, if you are a permanent civil servant in another employment or corps, your probationary secondment is terminated and you are placed at the disposal of your home administration.

You may be allowed to resume your work at part-time for therapeutic reasons under the same conditions as a regular civil servant unless your internship involves vocational training or must be completed in a training institute.

Leave for family reasons

You can take unpaid leave at your request of a maximum of one year, renewable twice for the following reasons:

Caring for your spouse or partner Civil partnerships, a child or a ascending as a result of an accident or serious illness
Giving care to a dependent child, to your Civil partnership or partner or to an ascendant with a disability that requires the presence of a third person
Raising a child under 12
Follow your husband or Civil partnership partner who is forced to move for work reasons to a location far from where you work.

You must ask to resume your duties at least 2 months before the end of your current leave.

You can also take the following holidays:

Leave of absence maternity or of adoption
3 days leave for birth or arrival of a child placed for adoption
Paternity and childcare leave.

You can also take the following holidays:

Parental Leave : if you are a regular civil servant in another employment context, seconded on probation, your home community is informed of the start and end dates of this leave
Family solidarity leave
Parental Attendance Leave
Caregiver Leave.

Leave for personal convenience

You can be placed at your request and subject to service requirements, on leave for personal convenience for up to 3 months.

The leave is unpaid.

Leave to prepare for or admit to a competition

You can apply for unpaid leave if you are admitted to:

A preparatory cycle for a competition for admission to the civil service, to the international civil service, to a post as an official of parliamentary assemblies, a magistrate of the judicial order or a member of the military
Or in a training institution through which the recruitment of civil servants, magistrates of the judicial order and military personnel is carried out
Or to a competition for admission to the civil service, to the international civil service, to employment as an official of parliamentary assemblies, as a magistrate of the judicial order or as a member of the military

The leave ends at the end of the internship, school or preparatory cycle for the accomplishment of which the leave was granted to you.

You cannot have more than one leave at the same time for these different reasons.

Annual leave has no effect on the duration of your internship.

If you have been granted parental leave, the end date of your probationary period is postponed by a number of working days equal to the number of days and, possibly, half-days of parental leave used.

The same applies if you have taken family solidarity leave or caregiver leave.

However, your full tenure takes effect on the date of the end of the statutory duration of the probationary period, excluding the extension due to your leave if you have benefited from:

Maternity or adoption leave
3 days leave for the birth or arrival of a child placed for adoption
Paternity and childcare leave
Extra birth leave.

Example :

If your internship is interrupted for more than one year due to successive leaves of any kind other than annual leave, your employer community may ask you to complete the entire internship again unless you have completed at least half the duration of the internship before its interruption.

At the end of your probationary period, if your employer community determines that you have demonstrated the professional skills required to perform the duties corresponding to your rank, you are tenured.

If not, you are dismissed for incompetence.

Titularization

Your administration issues a tenure order.

If you belonged to the territorial public service or hospital, you are expelled from the management in your employment framework or your body of origin.

Dismissal for Professional Insufficiency

If your employer administration determines that you do not have the professional skills required to perform the duties corresponding to your grade, it may dismiss you for professional insufficiency.

Your employer administration may dismiss you for professional incompetence in progress or at the end of your internship.

Your employer administration may dismiss you for professional incompetence in the course of an internship if you have performed at least half of your internship.

Thus, the decision to dismiss is subject to the prior opinion of the Joint Administrative Commission (JAC).

You are entitled to full disclosure of your individual file and all supporting documents.

The administration must inform you of this right.

During the procedure, you are entitled to the assistance of the defenders of your choice.

If you were already a permanent civil servant in another territorial employment framework or in a State or hospital corps before your appointment as a probationary civil servant, your probationary secondment is terminated and you are reinstated in your original employment framework or corps.

You are not entitled to any severance pay.

According to the body in which you are appointed as a public servant trainee, the probationary period may include a period of mandatory training.

At the end of the probationary period, you are eligible to become a permanent civil servant.

You are appointed as a public servant trainee when you are recruited into the hospital public service as a result of contest or a procedure for recruitment without competition.

You may also be appointed as a probationary official in the course of a career when you change body as a result of a competition or internal promotion.

For example, internship exemptions are provided for the winners of internal competitions for access to category C hospital bodies.