The decree of April 1996 established the second generation Regional Health Organisation Plans (SROS II) as a lever for health planning. One of the major issues at stake in their development is to promote the overall coverage of regional health priorities. This resulted in the need for apprenticeships on the part of "health planning designers". In order to better comprehend their opinion, a nationally selected sample was gathered to take into account the diversity in regional experiences, the differences in institutional partnership and the unity within the given place of the problem. Two series of 42 interviews at six month intervals were recorded and a thematic analysis was carried out according to a validated interview grid by the Social and Health Policies Analysis Laboratory (LAPSS) at the National School of Public Health (ENSP). This study demonstrates that the actors involved in health planning, who are few, should nevertheless develop skills centred on their multiple functions and tasks in order to adopt to new reforms within the context of an environment of significant economic and legal pressures. These professionals performed collective and organisational, and even cultural, apprenticeships which allowed for the mobilisation of initiatives, the integration of diversity in individual projects towards a capacity for responsible collective action and quality, all of which advocates for the modernisation of public action.