European Centre for the
Development of Vocational Training

ERO National Research Report Template 2006

Please consult the Manual for completing this Template

(ERO National Research Report Manual 2006)

ERO National Research Report

Country: / France
Name(s) of author(s): / Maillebouis, Madeleine
Ingénieure d’études, 1ère classe, Manager of Cdft, Cnam
Faucheux, Alice
Documentaliste, Cdft, Cnam
Date of submission: / May 2006
  1. Links between National VET/HRD research and development initiatives and VET/HRD policies (in particular recent reforms/innovations).

  • Research as an accompanying action that follows on from, or supports a policy change
The main body of research related to VET in France is conducted by Céreq (‘Centre d’études et de recherche sur les qualifications’) and its regional centres. As a public centre of expertise at the service of the key players in training and employment, Céreq conducts assessments of the application of reforms and action research.
The first application of the 2004 laws on the LLL and the decentralisation
The 05/04/2004 law on the LLL pioneered the individual right to training (DIF). It required a reorganisation in the methodology of observation personal and collective training practices in research projects. The concepts of and usual frontiers between ‘formal’, ‘informal’, and ‘non-formal’ training are re-examined. Some evaluations focus on the practices of the professional branches (publication of the PSB, ‘statistical portraits of sectors’ by the Céreq), of employers, and of employees. Numerous studies focus on the management of human resources within the workplace, the offer of continuous training, & the development of competences.
The 08/13/2004 decentralization law (concerning local authorities which enlarged the responsibilities & competences of regions in the matter of training) diversified the regional projects of R&D issued by universities and regional centres associated to Céreq. The studies focus on the training offer, the plans of guidance and the certification offer. Moreover, the regional database of the ‘statistical group for evaluation’ was developed and updated.
The 2005 measures
2005 was marked by three measures: the 01/18/2005 law of programming for social cohesion which reformed apprenticeship, reinforcing the procedures of VAE (Validation of non-formal learning); the 06/30/2005 edict which reduced the obligations of training providers; the emergency plan for employment, by the prime minister, which consisted of particular measures regarding the employment of youngsters and of older workers (announced on the 12/12/2005).
These measures which respond to concerns present in the social debate in the last few years are also present in the sphere of research projects. Two kinds of projects come with these measures: projects which specifically analyse the application of the laws & more transversal projects. Great quantitative & qualitative studies with a 5, 7 and soon 10 yearlong hindsight, tackle these themes in a transversal way: from the entering into working life to the first parts of a career, from initial to continuous training, from individuals’ behaviour to firms’ workforce policies. Some projects specifically focus on the entry into working life (social integration of youngsters, differentiation by gender and ethnic background), on the articulation between initial training and workplace, on the professional mobility and the analysis of personal career paths.
  • Research initiates policy changes
Research may have influenced political initiatives but if it does, the analysis of research projects and of the developed policy does not permit to assert it. From what we examine, most researches selected for ERO project base follows or are assessments of policy changes.
  1. Links between EU sponsored VET/HRD research and development initiatives and VET/HRD Policies (IN particular recent reforms/innovations).

In France, the R&D has been marked by the European current events in 2005, which have inscribed education and lifelong learning as the only means to reach the goals of a society of knowledge in 2010.
This was especially supported by the participation of Céreq in a European consortium responsible for the evaluation of advancement of national policy towards the goals of Lisbon and Copenhagen.
  • Lifelong Learning
The Leonardo Da Vinci program actively supports the LLL policy in France. Numerous innovations and tools issued from this program (territorial diagnosis, of branches or workplaces, tools for multimedia training, etc) and are taking part in the skill and competences development and in the improvement of firms’ competitiveness.
  • Fight against discriminations
In the field of employment discrimination in France, 2005 was marked by the creation on 30/12/2004 of a new institution in France: the Halde (Haute Autorité de Lutte contre les Discriminations et pour l’Egalité / High Authority of Fight against Discrimination, and for Equality). The European impulse preceded the creation of this institutional and legal authority which echoes the different European directives. The Halde has the jurisdiction to intervene in all fields, including employment, against discrimination, the criteria being based on ethnicity, religion, gender, conviction, disablement, age, health, or sexual orientation. Its missions are the treatment of individual complaints, and an advisory mission next to the authorities, of observation, study & animation of research.
This legal support, along with the tools provided by the projects of the Equal program, enriched with European partners’ experiences, which enable the training practitioners to develop information and awareness procedures.
  • Certification of skills and competences
The French government is currently drawing up a national response to the proposal of setting a European frame of professional certifications. The Céreq is composing a national report on the role of national certification systems to promote lifelong learning.
  • Validation of non-formal learning
For the general conference of UNESCO in September 2005, the Céreq participated in the resolution project (resolution 14) on the role and the validation of the benefits of experience in lifelong learning.
  • Transparency of qualifications
In 2005, the Céreq pursued its activities of watching projects concerned with the transparency of qualifications, the setting of credits in VET, and the evaluation of training quality.

3.Overview of important issues and themes addressed in current VET/HRD Research and Development projects.

  • Assessment of the application of reforms
A third of the ERO base projects have been financed by the French ministries of Employment and of Research (12 out of 39). They come in the scope of national priorities in VET, esp. following the law of 05/04/2004 to measure the impact. The projects are accompanied by surveillance of, and reflection on, examples of best practice by trainers, in firms as much as in training and guidance centres.
  • Professionalization of guidance and training professionals
Furthermore, action researches of support in the professionalization of VET & guidance professionals (5 out of 39) have been started up to encourage the application of the employment and training policies.
  • Analysis of the training offer
Another significant group of projects (10 out of 39) concerns the training offer. Most of them are evaluations and comparisons of the training offer in enterprises, and in the guidance and training centers, both regionally and internationally. These studies are usually aimed at answering the specific needs of certain categories of people (youngsters, people in precarious situations or unemployed), or certain industry sectors.
  • VET, individuals’ professional paths
A significant number of projects (8 out of 39) tackle the VET from the point of view of training and professional strategies. The emphasis is put on the ways to secure individuals’ professional paths. The studies seek to evaluate the development of the status, personal and professional, of the employees, realized by training or the VAE approach.
  • VET, e-learning innovation
In matter of innovation, some projects of e-learning have been conducted in the training centres (4 out of 39), in some pre-defined types of activity, and their evaluation is underway.
  • HRD (organisational, corporate level)
A great number of projects deals with the development of competencies and management of human resources in workplaces (12 out of 39), which they approach along three distinct lines :
- At the level of the business strategy, when VET is used in the management of human resources to leverage the economic and social performance of firms.
- At the level of employees, the development of skills is tackled individually along the lines of professional trajectories and strategies of advancement. These studies focus more particularly on the older workers, on the young workers and question the mobility of individuals.
- Finally, at the level of the employee / employer relationship, a relationship which tends to become individualized.
  • HRD (labour market, economic level)
Finally, a significant number of projects of national and transnational scope concern themselves with the fight against illiteracy, the development of transparency of qualifications and diplomas and the re-evaluation of apprenticeship, in particular in the Education Nationale.

Annex: Selection of ERO Base projects.

  • Assessment of the application of reforms
The evaluations of the setting of sector agreements about lifelong learning

Notion and governance of vocational training

  • Professionalization of guidance and training professionals
Public action and social economy in matter of employment and vocational training

  • Analysis of the training offer
Comparative and evaluative analysis of guidance and counselling services for out of work individuals and workers at risk in five European countries

  • VET, professional path
Vocational training, risk-prevention of employment and accompaniement of professional trajectories

  • VET, e-learning innovation
Vocational education and maritime training: which innovative actions in Europe?

  • HRD (organisational, corporate level)
Contunuing Vocational Training Survey 3: European survey

Mobilities within employment : juridical study

Salary relationships and skill management : towards more individualization and new forms of professionnal relationships.

  • HRD (labour market, economic level)
Illiteracy situations: analysis, proposals…

4.Major institutions involved in VET/HRD R&D in your country.

There is no research structure entirely dedicated to vocational education and training. Researches on these themes are taken in charge by a diversity of units : isolated searchers inside universities or other public institutions, small departments within more important research centres. The following structures represent the major institutions producing researches in the VET/HRD field.
CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique / National centre for scientific research)

Cnrs is the most important research institution in France. Its units are operating in conjunction or association with universities and other research organisations, constituting mixed research units (UMR).
CEREQ (Centre d’études et de recherches sur les qualifications / Centre for studies and research on qualifications). Marseilles and its 18 associated centres.

Céreq's regional network includes eighteen regional centres based in university research laboratories. The specialities developed by each research team complement those of the Marseilles staff. The associated centres and their host laboratories carry out specific studies in the context of Cereq's fields of investigation. Objectives for 2004-2007 will cover three fields:
- Work, organisation and knowledge
- Structuring of the labour market and mobility
- Training and certification supply.
The Céreq has also numerous international activities. Comparative studies between different European countries complement the analyses of changes observed in the various areas of training-employment relations.
INRP (Institut national de recherche pédagogique /National institute for pedagogical research). Lyon.

Main research centre on all themes concerning education.
CEE (Centre d’études de l’emploi / Centre for studies on employment). Noisy-le Grand.

The CEE, public research institute has a permanent team of some 60 researchers (sociologists, economists, statisticians) working in partnership with public agencies, with the CNRS and other university research teams. Research work and studies concern mainly changes in the nature of employment due to market and technological evolutions, the organization of labour and company policy, the evaluation of employment policies, the mechanisms of the labour market, and the status and behaviour of the working population.
CNAM (Conservatoire national des arts et métiers) and more particularly the CRF (Centre de recherche sur la formation / research center on vocational training). Paris.

An investigation made by the Centre de documentation sur la formation et le travail (Documentation centre for training and work research : Cnam/Cdft) has permitted to locate 160 laboratories and 350 searchers or experts in VET/HRD in France.
DEPP (Direction de l’évaluation, de la prospective et de la performance du Ministère de l’Education Nationale / Evaluation and prospective departement of the ministry for National Education)

The DEPP is in charge of the management of the statistical information system of the ministry for National Education. It contributes to the evaluation of the policies led by the ministry and produce scenarios of evolution of the education system. In connection with research institutions, it leads long-term prospective, particularly on the relation between training and employment.

5.Funding frameworks and support structures.

In France, research related to VET/HRD is mainly financed by the state through Ministries.
Are mainly concerned : the Ministère du Travail, de l’Emploi et de la Cohésion sociale (Ministry for Employment, Works and Social Cohesion), the Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (Ministry for National Education, High Education and Research), but also the Ministère de l’Agriculture et de la Pêche (Ministry for Agriculture and Fishing), and the Ministère de la Jeunesse, des Sports et de la Vie Associative (Ministry for Youth, Sports and Community Life).
Therefore, it is essentially through these state structures that research institutions can be located and that main research orientations can be found. Besides, the Ministry in charge of Research, asserts “the necessity of an international cooperation within the European research area and within a more and more open world area” ( (05/12/2006))

6.Professional research associations and networks.

AECSE (Association des enseignants et chercheurs en sciences de l’éducation):
(05/19/06)
Organisation of the 5th international congress on education and training research held from august 31st to September 4th 2004. Paris. Conservatoire national des arts et métiers
APRIEF (Association pour la promotion de la recherché et des innovations en education et en formation / Association for the promotion of research and innovations on education and training)and the INRP (Institut national de recherche pédagogique / National institute for pedagogical research) :
(05/19/06)
Organisation of the 8th international Biennal on education and training : conferences on research and innovations. Lyon. 11-12-13-14 april 2006.
GEHFA (Groupe d’études sur l’histoire de la formation des adultes / Study group on adult training history)
(05/17/06)
Organisation of monthly seminars on adult education.
AGRH (Association francophone de gestion des ressources humaines / the french speaking Human Resource Management Association)
(05/19/06)
L'AGRH mainly gathers together researchers and teacher-cum-researchers in the HRD field. It associates practitioners and institutional members to its works and publications. Its vocation is to promote research and education.
Centre Inffo
(19/05/06)
Main institution in France for information on adult training.
Organisation of many events dealing with adult training, among them a winter university gathering around 500 participants. The last one: january 18, 19, 20th 2006. Arles. Focused onthe professionalization paths (reforms, decentralisation).

7.Brief review/assessment of the current R&D activities and indication of future issues that need to be addressed. This section should be completed by a research expert.

7.1
Firstly, comment briefly on the status, effectiveness and impact of current VET/HRD R&D activities in your country.
(One third of a page)
There is no VET research specialised institution in France. Most researchers are disseminated within laboratories, research centres and universities. An inquiry made by the CDFT (Cnam) allowed to identify 160 laboratories and 360 researchers working on subjects dealing with VET and HRD.
VET research has the particularity to be organized via practical fields and not within a discipline. Apart from the case when VET research clearly appears as a voluntarist policy of a laboratory or of a research centre, the demands for VET research are rarely formulated in that way by the society. As Pierre Caspar wrote, they come out of problems to be solved, dissatisfactions or more fundamental economic or social questions.
The researchers who have been selected for the ERO base are invested in national and transnational projects with fundings for their realisation. (The yearly report of the DARES gives the information on these projects as well as the database of the Céreq). Most of them target the improvement of the system of VET. The major political reforms are often followed by surveys, evaluations, and sometimes researches. However, this image of VET-HRD research cannot be considered as completely exact because some researches are carried out by isolated searchers belonging to various displinary fields. Those projects, even if new specialized periodicals have been edited (Savoirs, Distances et savoirs), suffer from a lack of visibility.
Madeleine Maillebouis
7.2
Secondly, briefly outline and comment on those issues that need to be addressed by R&D in the future.
(One third of a page)
Over the coming year, there will be a need for evaluating the employment and training public program as well as following the effects of the reforms. The «social cohesion plan» (january 18th 2005)and the «urgency plan for employment» (june 2005) contain many dispositionssuch as new types of contracts, measures for the employment of young people and older workers, development of apprenticeship and alternative training. All these measures will certainly be studied in order to measure the effects and recommend adaptations.
The effects of decentralisation policy are likely to be analysedat national and regional levels.
The discriminations linked to sex and age will also be other important matters of investigation.
Besides, on the pedagogical and methodological fields, the use of internet and other open learning methods are already much studied and are likely to continue to be present in the research programs of science education research laboratories.
Professional didactics, work analysis, activity analysis and training are also very present in adult training research and should remain important research topics.
On the HRD side, the development of competencies of workers and their professionalization in specific sectors - the «care sector» (service à la personne) is much tackled as well as the social sector. Those sectors being regarded as employment providers for the future.
The Cereq and its network of associated centres, which is the most important institution producing studies and researches on VET-HRD will be still very much involved in European researches and seminars with European organisations. Presently, this centre, with the Dares and the laboratory «Work and mobility» are conducting important preparatory works for two European investigations dealing with adult formal or non formal training practices: AES (Adult education survey) and CVTS 3.
Madeleine Maillebouis

8.VET/HRD contact people.