The CHRO of LVMH North America opens up about its artisan apprenticeship program: ‘There’s really an urgency for us to cultivate these skills’

While AI has employers scrambling to teach workers the skills they need for the future, one company is working to train employees for professions that have been around for centuries. 

Luxury goods company LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, Sephora, and Christian Dior, among many other brands, uses artisans to make many of its products by hand, including jewelry, leather goods, perfumes, and more. But as high-end brands grapple with a rapid decline in skilled tradespeople, LVMH is bracing for what it predicts will be a shortage of 22,000 workers by the end of 2025, a third of whom will be craftspeople. 

“Most people don’t even know that these jobs exist, that we need them in the U.S., and they very much require a human person to do that,” Gena Smith, CHRO at LVMH North America, tells Fortune. “It’s not something that can be automated in almost all of these cases.”

To combat this shortage, the luxury goods company has expanded its apprenticeship programs over the past few years, called Métiers d’Excellence, which first launched in Europe in 2014. Last year, the company trained 700 apprentices globally, a significant increase from the 180 people trained in 2018, according to Bloomberg.

In 2022, LVMH expanded its artisan training to the U.S., where it now has three apprenticeship programs: two at luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co., and one at watchmaker TAG Heuer. All apprentices are paid at the same rate as other interns at the company and receive travel stipends to support their commutes. 

At Tiffany & Co., the apprenticeships are two years long. One eight-person cohort is based in New York and run in partnership with the Fashion Institute of Technology, while the other seven-person cohort is based in Rhode Island and works with the Rhode Island School of Design. TAG Heuer’s five-person watchmaking apprenticeship, launched in February and lasting one year, is located in Springfield, N.J. All programs are accredited apprenticeships with the Department of Labor, and apprentices also learn from master artisans at the brands.

All programs have received considerable interest: Despite only taking on less than 10 people per class, Tiffany’s New York cohort received more than 500 applicants, the Rhode Island program saw 200, and TAG’s program got more than 100 applicants.

Smith says the cohorts are small so that all the apprentices get enough time and guidance to learn these niche skills. She adds that the brands with a program in place are eager to continue them moving forward. 

“There’s really an urgency for us to cultivate these skills,” she says, adding that Tiffany & Co. wants a new cohort every year to keep up with demand. The company’s inaugural apprentice class will complete the program later this year. Graduates aren’t required to work only at LVMH after completing the program, but Smith says the company aims to recruit all trainees to work at the brands. Over the last 10 years, LVMH has hired 80% of individuals who completed the program.

“The goal for us would be to hire all of them, because these are positions that have been in decline for a number of years,” says Smith. “Part of why we’re doing it is because we want to continue to cultivate these artists and skills, but really, we also need these métiers, we need these roles.”

Paige McGlauflin
paige.mcglauflin@fortune.com
@paidion

Today’s edition was curated by Emma Burleigh.

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