Research in Post-Compulsory Education

ISSN: 1359-6748 (Print) 1747-5112 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rpce20

The role of counselling and guidance in promoting lifelong learning in france Bénédicte Gendron To cite this article: Bénédicte Gendron (2001) The role of counselling and guidance in promoting lifelong learning in france, Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 6:1, 67-96, DOI: 10.1080/13596740100200091 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13596740100200091

Published online: 19 Dec 2006.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 990

View related articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rpce20 Download by: [37.44.207.25]

Date: 14 January 2017, At: 14:24

Research in Post-Compulsory Education, Volume 6, Number 1, 2001

The Role of Counselling and Guidance in Promoting Lifelong Learning in France BÉNÉDICTE GENDRON CERSE, Université de Caen & Université de Paris, Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France

ABSTRACT Until the latter part of the twentieth century, education and training were confined mainly to the first phase of a person’s life. Young people progressed on a straight line from school to work or to vocational education and training or to higher education, with little opportunity to change direction. Once they had left the educational system they were unlikely to return. But, nowadays, in all developed countries, the structure of people’s lives is undergoing radical change in the distribution of activities by age, leading to a shift to older age groups undertaking functions previously reserved for an earlier time in life. These tendencies are linked to changes in the labour market structure, and are accompanied by readjustments in the social arrangements that regulate ‘who does what, when’. These include policies to defer statutory retirement ages, extend compulsory education and training, and to postpone the age at which young people become entitled to unemployment and social benefits in the transition to working life. Despite the fact that, for many years, education was considered to be one of the most powerful guarantors of social justice, offering equal opportunities to all and selecting and awarding on the basis of merit, it has since become clear that education rather works to reproduce existing social divisions and statutes, at least partly because pupils arrive in and proceed through the system with different kinds and amounts of economic, social and cultural resources to help them. Vocational guidance services are implicated in these processes, especially in their role as an educational selection and allocation mechanism. But, as a source of information, vocational guidance can promote learning. Accreditation of work experience as a part of the larger recognition of a right to lifelong learning and another conception of competence building, also can increase access to further education.

Counselling and Guidance in the Education System Traditionally, career guidance services have been the instrument for regulating supply and demand in training, education, and labour markets. In the context of the need to combat unemployment and the social marginalisation with which it 67

Bénédicte Gendron

is linked, rising qualification demands upon the paid workforce, and the improvement of mutual understanding and tolerance amongst Europe’s citizens, vocational counselling and guidance can be identified as a key strategic element in the development of human resources. Thus, it can facilitate citizens’ social and economic participation and especially the social and economic integration of young people. But where vocational guidance and counselling services are integrated into the schooling system, they shoulder the burden of responsibility for education selection processes at different levels in the formal education path. This selection has significant, negative and perverse implications and effects.These points are amplified in the following sections.

School Counselling and Guidance at the Transition Period: principles and objectives at different levels of transition in the formal education system In general, the critical turning points and transition periods structured within the French education and training system are typically experienced by young people as stressful. This is very evident during the primary/secondary transfer, for example, where the first two years of secondary education are crucial for subsequent educational trajectories. The transfer from compulsory to postcompulsory secondary education is equally abrupt. Principles and Objectives of Guidance and Counselling Services Principle: The Framework Law on Education of 10 July 1989 states in article 8 that ‘the right to guidance counselling and information concerning courses and occupations is part of the right to education’. The Decree no. 90-484 of 14 June 1990 defines the principles and forms of guidance for pupils. Objectives: Guidance is an educational activity, the purpose of which is to assist each pupil throughout his or her school career to make reasoned educational and vocational choices. Guidance is one of the school’s primary functions. At the end of the 4th class, three options can be considered in discussions with the family, depending on the pupil’s achievements and personal goals: • repetition of a general or technological 4th class; • promotion to a general or technological 3rd class; • promotion to a 3rd ‘integration’ class to prepare for a qualifying vocational training programme. The 3rd class, the final year of Collège and of the orientation cycle, constitutes the key period in guidance. Three options are possible: • the 2nd general or technological class which leads to a general or technological Baccalauréat; • the 2nd vocational class which leads to a vocational studies certificate (brevet d’études professionnelles – BEP). This option allows pupils to advance ultimately

68

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

to a vocational or technological Baccalauréat, after they have received an initial vocational qualification; • the first year of preparation for the vocational aptitude certificate (certificat d’aptitude professionnelle – CAP). The Class Council proposes an option based on the wishes expressed by the pupil and his or her family. The proposal is submitted to the family which can accept it or appeal to a committee. According to the track followed at this transition stage, the student vocational and occupational career and the employment outlook and opportunity will be different. Thus, according to the Department of Programming and Development report Etat de l’Ecole (1996) more vocational baccalauréat holders are general employees than those with general or technical baccalauréats. Around two-thirds of those with a CAP and BEP are employees. Of these, those with school qualifications are slightly more likely to occupy intermediary type jobs as technicians, for example, than former apprentices are, but the latter are less exposed to unemployment. In the school environment, guidance is provided through the mediation of the National Office for Information on Studies and Occupations (ONISEP) and Centres for Information and Guidance (CIO – centre d’information et d’orientation). Although CIO operate primarily in the school environment, these centres are open to all groups. In this way, CIO counsel job seekers and provide various services: assistance, information, documentation and individual meetings with a guidance counselor. They have developed a system of self-documentation for occupations and training programmes. Information for the students at the secondary education level as well as at the higher education was furnished by more than 4500 guidance advisers. These advisers have been referred to as counselor-psychologues (COP – conseiller d’orientation psychologues) since the 1985 reform and Directors of Guidance and Information Centre. Their role defined in the 20 March 1991 decree is to bring information to the students and their parents, to observe students and their school success, to be involved in the school, university, vocational students projects in initial education, to be involved in the CIO actions that focus on young people who complete compulsory education without achieving any qualification and adults lacking sufficient education. But because of these three roles, school advisers can only provide advice or supervise students who meet school difficulties. Thus, the guidance and training programme’s monitoring functions are not provided. The guidance for the youth school-leavers: In addition to counselling services for students, since 1986 the Ministry of National Education has been developing its own system for the integration of young people (DIJEN – Dispositif d’insertion des jeunes de l’Education Nationale) who leave the education system before receiving a Baccalauréat. It was designed to care for and guide young people, and to encourage them to renew contact with the school system. Guidance provided for young people outside the school environment is one of the major developments of the 1980s. Since 1982, permanent centres for 69

Bénédicte Gendron

information and guidance (PAIO), concerning available training programmes, have been open to young people between the ages of 16 and 25. Local agencies (missions locales) are also available to young people between the ages of 16 and 25 who have left school without an employment or apprenticeship contract. They deal with a wide range of problems including vocational integration, accommodation, and health. There are currently 450 PAIO and 238 local agencies with a total of 5000 employees. PAIO and local agencies received and assisted 750 000 young people in 1993. In addition, there is the Information and Documentation Centre for Young People (CIDJ) with 25 regional centres (CRIJ) which receive young people and provide information on all areas of daily life.

Vocational Counselling and Guidance Practices: problematic aspects and the reality of the objectives Guidance at the Secondary Education Level: a procedure felt as oppressive, authoritative and synonymous with failure Vocational counselling and guidance practices are frequently mentioned as sources of difficulty in responding appropriately to young people’s needs and demands. They are directly implicated in hierarchical divisions and selection processes in schooling systems. School guidance is organised around a hierarchy of different subjects, from ‘noble’ subjects leading to the general baccalauréat to relegation subjects in a system where technology and vocational education are considered by parents as a guidance route for lack of anything else. Indeed, hierarchies of knowledge and skills, as represented by the status distinction between general and technical/vocational education, have consequences for personal identity and social practices. Firstly, these services are traditionally more closely linked to training and employment transitions than to educational decision-making. Very often, the young people doing well at school and heading for tertiary level education do not need vocational counselling and guidance. Thus, vocational counselling and guidance as an activity is therefore allied more firmly with vocational education than with general education. Secondly, where vocational guidance and counselling services are integrated into the schooling system, they shoulder the burden of responsibility for educational selection processes and in pupils’ eyes deliver a judgement about their personal and social worth which is based on their formal educational assessment. Thus, the pupils in technical-vocational tracks opted for this route because their marks were not good enough to continue with general education; and because of that, they hold a poor image of its prospects. They reported that the vocational counselling services had ‘sent’ them on that route and therefore, mistrust the educational guidance process. An efficient guidance system should develop real choice for students. The implementation of a real guidance policy would allow a smoother interaction

70

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

between the different providers of information and guidance among the different educator teams in each collège. Guidance at the Lycée: non-adapted measures Instead of preparing students for higher education and work, the lycée focuses its effort on baccalauréat preparation and does not teach students how to guide themselves. In reality, guidance schemes set up for the students are too discrete, extremely complicated, not well known by their customers, and focus on an excessive auto-consumption of specialised literature which inhibits access to information by parents and students. Consequently, the higher education and the secondary education system ignore each other and thus the lycée does not prevent unrealistic guidance or guidance for lack of anything else which leads to the failure of many students at the university.

Higher Education and Secondary Education: two different worlds According to the French Centre for Research on Education, Training and Employment (CEREQ – Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches sur les Qualifications) and the Direction of Programming and Development (DPD) observations, an important part of failure at the university is related to the lack of information and guidance to students at the high school and at the university. Failure at the University An important part of the failure at the university comes from the French university system failing to adapt to an increase in student enrolment. In 1996, 76% of the students passed the baccalauréat degree, i.e. 463 000 students of 609 000 candidates, 258 000 from the general education (56%) and 130 000 from the technological system (29%), and 71 000 (15%) vocational baccalauréat holders. Almost all of the general baccalauréat holders continue their studies compared with more than 80% of the technical holders and only 15% of the vocational baccalauréat holders. All people included, it is more than a half of the age group. According to the 1992 Céreq data, 37% of the first year students at the university in 1988 achieved the General University Studies Diploma DEUG in two years, 24% in three years, and 7% in four years, i.e. 61% in two or three years and 68% within four years. Among the 32% who failed, 10% enrolled in different subjects (STS, IUT, other institutions) and achieved a degree of level III (bac+2), 6% were still studying in 1992, and 16% gave up without earning any further diploma. These results can be compared with the success rate in the selective institutions: 80% of the IUT students and 70% of the STS obtained their degree in the normal time. Failure varies according to the subject of study but above all the baccalauréat origins (see Table I). 71

Bénédicte Gendron

Success Reorientation Drop-out rate rate rate Scientific baccalauréat holders Literature and economics baccalauréat holders Industrial technological baccalauréat holders Service technological baccalauréat holders

Still in first cycle

68%

18%

3%

11%

65%

16%

8%

11%

27%

40%

25%

8%

31%

31%

31%

7%

Table I. Success rate at the university in the first cycle of the 1988 baccalauréat holders. Source: Céreq, data 1992.

At the IUT institution, the situation is more uniform than at the university (see Table II). IUT

Scientific Literature and Industrial baccalauréat economics technological holders baccalauréat baccalauréat holders holders

Success rate

88%

83%

74%

Service technological baccalauréat holders 75%

Table II. Success rate in an IUT institution according to the kind of baccalauréat. Source: Céreq, data 1992.

These results measure the extent and the inequality of the failure in first cycles in higher education. If the latter is directly related to the lack of adaptation of the higher education system, it is also linked to the dysfunctioning in student guidance and the structure of higher education in France.

Diversions Ascertained in the Baccalauréat Holders’ Guidance The higher education system in France has not adapted to the needs of the increasing number of students continuing beyond the baccalauréat degree. Recent trends show a diversion of certain selective options in short courses institutions, such as IUTs and STSs, in which the purpose is a vocational objective. An additional trend is a surge of students under-prepared in the general higher education system enrolled at the open door university. In all, the selective institutions enrol around 40% of the students of the first cycle in higher education, but some students alter the original purpose of these 72

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

institutions by selecting these training programmes as a springboard to go further in education. Indeed, selective institutions, with a vocational objective to train for the workplace after two years of study, are being invaded by the best general baccalauréat holders rather than the technological ones. These latter are being obliged to apply for entry into the open door university leading to longer studies, for which they may not be prepared. This is a problem especially for the IUTs students because 70% of them have a general baccalauréat degree. Technological baccalauréat holders represent only 30% of the students enrolled in IUT and 47% in STS. Consequently, these selective short courses institutions (IUTs, STSs) are used by an important number of students as a pseudo General University Studies Diploma because of the quasi guarantee to succeed in these institutions which provide better management and supervision. According to the 1992 Céreq data, 70% of the IUT and 40% of the STS graduate students continue their studies beyond this diploma, especially those who are general baccalauréat holders. On the other hand, the technological baccalauréat holders go on to university just because they have not been accepted anywhere else. So, the enrolment of most technical baccalauréat holders at the university reflects a choice made against a background of uncertainty and inadequate information and above all failure to be accepted in IUTs or STSs. In short, a lot of enrolments at the university illustrate erratic guidance related to a lack of information and a misreading of the university requisites and realities and the employment outlooks after the different programmes. Therefore, a preliminary measure would be a real guidance policy and to reform the university programme towards more professionalisation. That was the proposal of the Fauroux Commission in 1996. Proposal for Improvements and the Important Role of Vocational Counselling and Guidance Practice in Promoting Learning Fauroux Commission to Renovate Higher Education: The university first cycle reforms regarding professional qualifications and improvement of information broadcasting. The following are the main proposals of the Fauroux Commission: To adapt DEUG curriculum to a diverse population. The commission proposed promoting vocational education identity by the introduction of vocational courses in each first cycle at the university, the revival of internship training and alternating curriculum between school and firms, and apprenticeship at the higher education level. Also, for the purpose of reducing the failure rate and the lack of adaptation, described above, several reforms were proposed to renovate DEUG curriculum: • the 1984 Savary Reform the aim of which was to implement a semester of guidance for each first-year student to allow them to make the closest choice to their preferences; 73

Bénédicte Gendron

• the 1992-94 Jospin-Lang Reform which planned to share DEUG curriculum in valuable units transferable in other subjects. These reforms were implemented only in a few universities. To guide and welcome students at the university. The recent plan of action showed a lack of continuity between the lycée and the university and the insufficient welcome and pedagogical supervision of the freshman students. Therefore, the 1996 Fauroux Report recommended a special schedule during the student curriculum that focuses on job position projects and meetings with academic people and employers at the secondary education level. To improve information provision to students, the Commission proposed: • weekly sessions of information • meetings between students from the secondary level of education and higher education • organisation of student conferences and conventions. Also, different proposals were suggested to improve the information mission as follows: • To better articulate the secondary education level with the higher education system: a periodical sequence of information about education choice and guidance from the 5th class until the baccalauréat level, reinforcement of the information and guidance role of the main teachers, improvement of the efficiency of the guidance advisers, the solicitation of guidance volunteers outside the education system, two days of general information on guidance and careers for baccalauréat candidates, implementation of a welcome week for freshmen students, accounting for the students desires and choices in guidance, and development of the SCUIO. • To adapt post-baccalauréat training programmes to the new and recent diversity in the student population: reorganisation of the annual university curriculum into semesters or trimesters, reduction of the number of subjects at the university, the opening of the STSs to students who want a change of guidance, reformation of technological subjects in the higher education system and the establishment of better articulation between university and short lessons institutions, such as IUTs and STSs for the technology baccalauréat holders, and the introduction to higher education of internships and apprenticeships. • To develop initiative at the university: more freedom allowed for the organisation of the curriculum at the university, easing of the links between local community actors, companies and universities, definition of a job policy in each university describing the precise aim of each training programme, and monitoring the student transition from school to work and to assist the adaptation of training to local needs.

74

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

The Important Role of Youth Guidance as an Inherent Education Process in Promoting Learning: the new challenges Vocational Counselling and Guidance as an Instrument for Information Guidance is inherently an educational process and can promote learning in a dual sense. Firstly, it encourages and assists young people to seek education and training courses and experiences that will expand their horizons and will qualify them for jobs that represent an acceptable balance between aspiration, aptitude and availability. Secondly, it constitutes a learning process in itself, whose aim is to equip young people with the information, skills and confidence to become active agents, i.e. to take their lives into their own hands. But where young people’s lives and their positioning within social and economic life as a whole are both changing and, in a number of ways, relatively deteriorating, improving vocational counselling and guidance equally demands a rethinking of its own purposes and practices. In other words, vocational counselling and guidance faces new challenges. The patterns of young people’s needs and demands as a whole may well be changing, which calls for new responses from information and advisory services whose raison d’être is, after all, to serve the interests of their clients and users. Indeed, contemporary processes of social and economic change place higher demands on all young people: to extend education and training participation and to raise their levels of general and vocational qualification; to demonstrate flexibility and adaptability of skills, perspectives and activities; to become self-directed, accept responsibility and take initiative in planning their lives and carrying through these plans; to cope positively with extended, fragmented and precarious transitions to adulthood and citizenship; and to choose with confidence between a range of possible lifestyles and values, but equally to accept others’ ways of life with openness and tolerance. These are high-level demands, requiring complex cognitive and interpersonal skills and a secure sense of self-identity and self-worth. At the same time, young people are living in a community that is already marked by significant levels of inequalities between social groups. Where the tensions between demands upon individuals and groups and their capacities to respond become too great, there is a risk of negative social and political consequences, for example, rejection of the policy and intolerance and hostility towards ‘outsiders’. Quality education and training which fosters competence and self-esteem for all young people is an essential means of addressing these problems, but it cannot replace the provision of adequate channels and opportunities for social and economic integration into full citizenship. And very often, the provision of vocational counselling and guidance services is not well coordinated with patterns of needs and demands, particularly in the case of the target groups of assistance. Therefore, all young people should have the real right to comprehensive and high quality of information and advice in making the transition between education, training, and employment. 75

Bénédicte Gendron

Vocational Counselling and Guidance as an Educational Process Vocational counselling and guidance is not simply an instrument for information transfer and for matching supply with demand as effectively as possible. Much more fundamentally, it is an educative process in itself, which aims to develop autonomous citizens who can envisage a personal life project and work proactively towards achieving their goals. This implies that young people be regarded as citizens in their own right, who carry personal and social responsibility for their own futures and that of the societies and economies in which they live. Therefore, vocational counselling and guidance services should adopt a life course perspective as a guiding principle. This implies a policy and practice of comprehensive service provision that begins early on in young people’s school careers and is a continuous element throughout education and training. Since the need for information and advice does not automatically cease once a young person has found a job, the principle of a continuous service provision should be extended across and beyond the point of labour market entry. Also, vocational counselling and guidance services would be more effective if they recognised the need to interlink the complementary specialist competencies of both formal and informal channels of information, resources, advice and support (social and educational services, parents, employers, etc.). Moreover, the competence of vocational counselling and guidance practice must be broadened, to place the aim of personal development at the centre of its concern with the goal of raising the confidence and self-esteem on the part of all young people; most particularly for the young disadvantaged, because the self-esteem of the socially and educationally disadvantaged is highly vulnerable and their education, training, and occupational decision-making processes are typically negatively influenced by poor self-assessments of their capacities and prospects. And as Sverker Härd wrote ‘Shortages in the basic education reduces the access to and benefit from further education’ i.e. the opportunities of lifelong learning in the future. Furthermore, education, training, and employment transitions are embedded in the social, cultural and economic circumstances of youth transitions as a whole. This means that a holistic approach to vocational counselling and guidance practice is of importance for all young people. It is especially important for highly disadvantaged and marginalised young people, since resolving their educational and labor market precariousness is predicated upon resolving their social precariousness altogether. Also, holistic and affirmative counselling and guidance practices cannot function effectively when practitioners are implicated in educational assessment/testing or welfare benefit control measures. Vocational counselling and guidance services must be seen to be independent of both in the eyes of client-users.

76

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

The New Challenges of Counselling and Guidance Service In sum, counselling and guidance methods should be proactive, experiential and not consider the client as passive. The learning processes that are an integral part of vocational counselling and guidance as a mutual activity between practitioner and client should place the concept of the active and autonomous user at the centre of attention. Also, young people may well have access to more effective sources of information and advice than the formalised services themselves. In this case, the key learning process initiated through counselling and guidance is that of fostering active and autonomous subjects. Finally, the scope of vocational counselling and guidance must be broadened, moving from a specific activity, whose rationale and purpose is restricted to education, training, and employment fields towards a generic activity which integrates these fields into their personal and social contexts. In other words, vocational counselling and guidance should move beyond the boundaries of ‘vocational’ counselling and guidance in its narrower sense of supporting educational, occupational, training and employment decision-making into a wider task of supporting the formulation and realisation of life plans and personal projects.

Implications Vocational counselling and guidance practices at compulsory school are directly implicated in the hierarchical divisions and selection process in schooling systems. In many cases, the different tracks in the education system are differently valued and offer qualitatively different prospects. In general education, sciences enjoy more esteem than humanities. Technical and vocational education have traditionally been seen as second-rate fall backs for those who do not make the grade in general education. This hierarchical nature of distinction has significant and negative implications. Indeed, school guidance is organised around a hierarchy of different subjects, from ‘noble’ subjects, leading to the general baccalauréat, to technology and vocational education, this latter track considered as a guidance way of relegation or guidance for the lack of anything else. Therefore, the young people doing well at school and heading for tertiary level education do not often use vocational counselling and guidance. Thus, vocational counselling and guidance as an activity is therefore allied more firmly with vocational education than with general education. The young job-seekers, who leave or drop out of school and do not find a job, become very often the clientele of the government training programmes (CFI, PÂQUE). Despite their participation in these programmes they express unhappy experiences linked to the fact that they see themselves as having had no choice and no control over their schooling careers. However, in contrast to school guidance counsellors, the CFI programme counsellors have a more positive image, mainly because they are more open to listening to the young people’s own wishes. But very often, they cannot provide the continuous longterm and broad-based counselling that these young people will need and 77

Bénédicte Gendron

especially, they cannot repair the damage to self-esteem and confidence for which the educational selection processes have been partly responsible.

Vocational Counselling and Guidance for the Workers and Job-seekers: competence audit and accreditation of work experience The underlying philosophy of the identification and accreditation of prior learning is that mature people have a range of skills and knowledge obtained not only from formal learning but also from work and life experience and that this is relevant to their workplace competence. Systems for the accreditation of prior learning seek to recognise and where appropriate, certify this learning, avoiding the need for students to re-learn what they already know. In France, the primary use of the identification and prior learning is in the bilan de compétences or competence audit, a process in which the individual is guided to reflect on prior learning and achievements and to draw up a ‘balance sheet’. This can be used as the basis for developing a personal action plan, which may lead to further education or training, progress towards a (further) qualification or to a change of career. The accreditation of prior learning can also give partial exemption from the requirements of some qualifications, as well as access to higher level courses. But according to the data, few people ask for a competence. These points are amplified in the following sections.

The Backdrop of the Identification and Accreditation of Skills and Knowledge Implementation The traditional model of education in France, which has been concerned only with young people before their entry into the labour market, has been strongly challenged. The increase in the level of qualification required, the movement from an unqualified to a qualified workforce, the increase in occupational mobility, and the changes to the organisation of work are some of the factors which have led to a transformation in education and training policy. The academic model of the acquisition and certification of knowledge could no longer function as the only system of accreditation. Therefore, it was recognised during the 1980s that learning can take place in the workplace or elsewhere and that, in addition to initial education, it is possible to take account of experiences and achievements gained outside working life and even of personal attainments. At the same time, traditional assessment methods are being questioned because they are unsuitable for the new client groups in training. Hence, procedures have been devised to allow the skills and knowledge, acquired through life and work experience, to be identified and accredited. In France, achievements from social and working life are identified in two ways:

78

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

• The personal and occupational competencies of workers are evaluated through a bilan de compétences (competency audit). This allows the recognition of attainments gained outside the educational system. • Experiential attainments can be accredited for the award of a diploma or credit towards a diploma. This second stage, which is new and still experimental, takes account only of occupational knowledge. It allows experienced employees to have their non-academic learning recognised in order to gain exemption from part of the examination requirements. France has adopted North American techniques for the identification of prior learning. The identification and accreditation of prior achievement has been developed for several client groups: • students wishing to enter university, but without the normal entry qualifications; • the adult unemployed and particularly women wishing to return to the labour market. Since 1988, the authorities have encouraged young people who left education without qualifications to undertake vocational training. After an ‘audit’ phase they are offered an individual training programme which takes into account their prior achievement.

Identification and Accreditation of Skills and Knowledge Acquired through Life and Work Experience Principles of Identification of Prior Achievements and Competency Audit (Bilan de compétences) Faced with a level of unemployment, which has risen sharply over a period of 20 years, with a peak in 1985, the authorities have tried various measures to increase the qualification levels both of the unemployed and of the employed workforce and also to facilitate long term mobility both within and between companies. But how can the competence and knowledge, which a person has acquired through experience, education or voluntary work, be identified? How can relevant proof be provided and ways of transferring this competence and knowledge to other occupations or activities envisaged? How do you avoid the necessity for trainees to relearn what they already know? In response to these questions, a unit credit system was developed, in 1963, and centres for the bilan de compétences (competence audit) were created. The unit credit system in France allows candidates to take part of or all of a diploma. Then, modular training courses are offered both to workers and to the unemployed. But it was the introduction of individual training credits in 1990 and also, the law of 22 July 1992, that made possible the opportunity to take account of prior vocational achievements, with the result that a significant number of units and diplomas have been obtained through this system. In 79

Bénédicte Gendron

1992, 17 400 candidates gained a complete diploma and 39 100 gained partial credit. These figures represent a 34% increase over those for 1991. The Purpose of Competency Audit The bilan is intended to determine the current state of the individual’s competency and personal and occupational skills. The bilan is based on an assessment, which may include a variety of methods (interviews, diagnostic assessments, self-assessments, tests, etc.), that assists in the development of an occupational plan, and if appropriate, a training plan. It is the property of the person concerned and may not be communicated to a third party without the permission of the subject. The bilan procedure was used first for adults faced with redundancy and for women wishing to return to work. Since the introduction of CFI (Individual Training Credit) in September 1989, bilans have been offered to young people without qualifications and to unemployed adults, as a first stage of their training. The aim of this first phase is to clarify their vocational aims. Since 1992, all employees with five years experience, including at least 12 months in their present company, may request leaves of absence to draw up a bilan of personal and occupational competency. The Basis of the Competence Audit Law The bilan des compétences, as a tool to identify and accredit skills and knowledge, acquired through life and work experience and as a basis to make training guidance for workers a right. Three laws form the basis of this right: • the interoccupational agreement of 3 July 1991 • the law of 31 December 1991 • and the decree of 2 October 1992. This right is included as part of the continuing training right and it ensures a vocation asked for by the worker called droit au congé bilan or at the initiative of the employer in a training plan framework financed by a mutual organisation or on the training budget of the company, on an outside service by an agreed organisation, and on a triangle contract between the recipient, the provider and the financer. The State role in the bilan des competences is to define rules to clear the contractual relationship between the different partners, firms, providers, and individuals. The use of the bilan was developed by the Public Power and the Social Partners. Only in an experimental stage in 1986, they are now generalised because of the increase of the CIBCs. Workers have access to the bilan, either at the request of their employer (as part of the training of budget – Plan de Formation) or at their own request (leave for a bilan of competence – Congé bilan de compétences). If the bilan is undertaken within the framework of the training budget, it is financed from the company’s 80

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

compulsory contribution to continuing professional development (1-1.5% of the payroll). If undertaken within the framework of leave for a bilan de compétence, it is financed through the obligatory contribution to individual training leave. This must be paid to an organisation that is approved bilaterally by employers and employees. An OPACIF (Organisme collecteur paritaire agrée) administers the obligatory contributions which represent 0.2-1.5% of the payroll. Objectives There are a number of contexts in which a bilan may be produced and used within public or private organisations. Four kinds of use of the bilan can be distinguished: (1) In France, ANPE (Agence Nationale pour l’Emploi – National Agency for Employment) is an example of the use of the bilan in employment. A number of services are offered in order to assess the employability of the applicant, especially after a long period of unemployment: • ‘In depth guidance sessions’ are intended for any person needing specific help in drawing up, defining/targeting or evaluating his or her career plan. • the ‘assessments of the level of occupational competence’ allow an evaluation of the theoretical and practical attainments of the unemployed. ‘Assessment in the workplace’ puts an unemployed person in a real job in a company, allowing him or her to test his occupational aims against the reality of a company. (2) Use of the bilan in training. The primary aim of the bilan in this context is to determine whether the individual has the prerequisites needed to follow a training course. It is also used to establish a training plan. (3) Use of the bilan in personnel recruitment. The bilan is undertaken by reference to the need of the company for specific qualifications, to the positions to be filled, or to changes in the production methods of the company. These techniques are part of forward planning for jobs and skill requirements. Companies can no longer confine themselves to the consideration of skills recognised at a particular point in time by certificates and diplomas. In order to anticipate change, they need to determine the potential of the workforce and their capacity to adapt to new working conditions. From this follows the techniques of competence evaluation which are used in companies particularly following recruitment or following the company’s annual appraisal interviews. (4) Use in guidance and manpower planning. The competence audit, now available to all workers (see point on organisation), involves the employees in a dynamic process of occupational mobility within the company. It leads the person concerned to consider the opportunities for professional development within the company, or in the same field of employment or even beyond. It is

81

Bénédicte Gendron

therefore advisable to provide him or her with information about occupations which are in demand and about the labour market. Organisation of the Bilan De Competence Procedural organisation. According to the law determining the procedures for the bilan, there are three phases in creating it: • The preliminary phase should lead the candidate to define and analyse his or her needs. During this period he or she should be given full information on the methods and techniques which are available. This will also give an appreciation of how the bilan can be used. • The investigation phase is specific to the individual. It should help the candidate to state his or her statutes, interests and aspirations, to identify the key aspects of his/her motivation, general and occupational knowledge, skills and aptitude, and to list the experiences which could be transferred to his/her chosen occupational area. • The concluding phase takes the form of a personal interview. Its aims is to review the detail of the results with the candidate. The agent offering the bilan then draws up a summary. Only the candidate has the right to pass this document to a third party (such as an employer or training organisation). On completion of the bilan a worker should be in a position to define or confirm his career aims. Thus, from this bilan procedure results a portfolio of competence which provides a record of, and evidence for, the knowledge and competencies which have been identified. The process of compiling the portfolio is itself a learning experience. This portfolio was inspired by examples in North America. The bilan provider organisations. The bilan de compétence is drawn up by a public or private organisation external to the company. A list of organisations offering this service is drawn up by the organisations, which collect the financial contributions, and may be amended each year. The CIBCs (Centres interinstitutionnels de bilan de compétences), 104 centres in France, gather different partners, such as the National Ministry of Education, the Association for the Adult Vocational Training (AFPA – Association pour la formation professionnelle des adultes), the National Agency for Employment (ANPE – Agence nationale pour l’Emploi), associations such as Retravailler (Return to work) and sometimes Chambers of Commerce and Industry or of Occupations. In 1992, the CIBCs interviewed around 35 000 people, including young and adult people, workers and people looking for a job. The psychotechnic centres of AFPA. • Private agencies, with experience in recruitment or career planning. • Associations with experience in training and in carrying out the bilan. • Establishments under the supervision of the National Ministry of Education.

82

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

Bilan financing. The bilan is free for the unemployed and for young people undertaking a training programme under the CFI. In this case, the state pays for the service. For employees, the method of payment is variable according to whether the bilan is undertaken at the request of the company or of the worker. The cost ranges from 2000 to 15 000 FF, depending upon the organisation providing the service and the type of bilan undertaken.

The Accreditation of Work Experience The accreditation of work experience (VAP – Validation des acquis professionnel) is part of the larger recognition of a right to lifelong learning and another conception of competence building. Indeed, the right to accreditation makes the individual a subject rather than an object of training: he or she becomes a collaborator in the creation of the knowledge involved. The accreditation differs from the identification of achievement in that its purpose is to lead to the award of a vocational certificate or diploma. Principles and Objectives Principles. The legal basis for the accreditation is the law of 22 July 1992 amplified by the decrees of 26 and 27 March 1993. This law states that anyone with a minimum of five years occupational experience may request validation of his or her occupational competence which may be taken into account as part of the knowledge and skills required for a diploma. The diplomas covered by the law are those of the national education system, higher education and agriculture. But, a candidate may not gain the whole qualification of a diploma through the VAP. Objectives. In France, the certification of existing occupational competence has the following aims: • To give formal recognition to the knowledge and skills which people already possess, often as a route to new employment or further training. • To increase the number of people with a qualification. • To reduce training time by avoiding repetition of what the student already knows. The accreditation of work experience procedure confirms two principles: • That the work activity not only makes use of competencies and knowledge but also generates them. • That knowledge can thus be acquired outside of any formal training system. Consequently, accreditation of work experience is available to anyone with a minimum of five years occupational experience.

83

Bénédicte Gendron

The Organisation The processes in the VAP are: • • • •

initial guidance and information preparation of a dossier or portfolio assessment and if appropriate certification if necessary, ‘top-up training’ and re-assessment.

To initiate the accreditation process, the candidate submits a detailed description of his or her work activity in the jobs that are likely to justify the request for exemption. This analysis of the work carried out must be presented in such a way that a jury can identify the competencies entailed and the knowledge they imply. Assistance in preparing the application is available to candidates. But in France, the experience taken into account must be from paid employment or self-employment instead of voluntary work, leisure activities or any other source. An accreditation jury, composed of a majority of teachers and professors but also professionals in the field, is responsible for comparing the competencies developed in the work situation to those expected from a degree candidate. It can decide to invite the candidate to an interview, which is neither a test nor a learning assessment, but serves to complement the information provided in the application or to obtain a better understanding of the real work activity. The jury decides after that whether or not to grant the exemption requested by the candidate.

Data about ‘Bilan de compétence’ Year

Number of Number of organisations employees

Number of Number of bilans hours realised provided for the bilan

Turnover TTC (million of FF)

1993 1994

680 700

5000 5330

126 000 125 000

1 800 000 2 300 000

270 340

variation

+6.6%

–0.8%

+27.8%

+25.9%

Table III. Activity of the bilan of compétence providers in 1993. Source: Dares, Premières Information, 96-13.1, no. 515-21 March 1996. Ex: In 1994, 125 000 was realised, i.e. –0.8% less than the previous year for a 2.3 million of Bilan-hours.

84

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING Job-seekers Men 16-25 26-44

≥ 45 % of all

Women

Occupied people All

Men

47.9 52.1 47.3 52.7 55.1 44.9

88.8 65.2 66.1

52.3 44.5 49.5

48.5 51.5

74.9

46.6

Women

All Women

All

% of a generation

All

Men

47.7 55.5 50.5

11.2 34.8 33.9

48.4 46.7 53.2

51.6 53.3 46.8

100.0 100.0 100.0

44.1 46.9 9.0

53.4

24.1

48.2

51.8

100.0

100.0

Sectors

Trade/ craft, sales, labourers

Unskilled blue collar workers and clerical

Skilled blue collar workers and clerical

Agents de maitrise

Middle managers and technicians

High manager and professional/ technical

Part du secteur

Table IV. Situation of the people who were provided a bilan of compétence in 1994. Source: Dares, Premières Information, 96-13.1, no. 515-21 March 1996. Ex: Most of the recipients are Job-seekers (74.9%).

Agriculture Industry Construction Profit service sector Non-profit service sector Other Part of the category

12.5 1.8 2.8 3.8 3.4 1.2 3.0

35.0 28.7 46.0 31.1 37.2 71.3 44.1

31.7 36.9 34.8 31.1 35.0 18.2 31.2

5.9 10.2 6.1 8.6 8.3 2.5 6.9

10.9 15.1 7.5 14.5 13.2 2.1 10.3

4.0 7.3 2.8 6.7 5.2 1.0 4.5

4.3 18.2 7.8 21.5 22.5 25.7 100.0

Table V. PCs and activity sector of the bilan of compétence recipients in 1994 (in %). Source: Dares, Premières Information, 96-13.1, no. 515-21 March 1996. Ex: Bilan of compétence are mostly used by blue Collar-workers and clerical (75%). Level of education

Recipients (%)

Level I or II Level III: BTS, DUT or DEUG Level IV: Btn, BT, BP, BM, Bac or Bac pro Level V: CAP, BEP or CFPA first degree Level VI: end of the compulsory education

8.4 10.7 16.1 37.2 27.6

Number of hours 9.0 8.5 13.4 39.8 29.3

Table VI. Bilan of compétence recipients’ level of education in 1994. Source: Dares, Premières Information, 96-13.1, no. 515-21 March 1996. Ex: the public from the level VI, more concerned by unemployment problems, already use 27.6% of the all of the bilan of compétences offered.

Implications The workers have some rights included in the continuing training law which allow them to access further education and also guidance and counselling advice. Particularly, they can have access to a competence audit (bilan de compétence). This service is to create a document that lists the significant 85

Bénédicte Gendron

competencies acquired by the holder, to develop or reinforce the holder’s awareness of the competencies acquired, and to assist the holder to convince others of his or her special qualities. But the bilan de competence realised in the legal guidance framework is still a small part of the workers guidance practices. This fact can be explained by the lack of information between workers about this right (especially in small size companies), also by the fear to inform their employer of their wish to change firms and moreover, by the real effect of the bilan. The accreditation of work experience is still a recent procedure, however in its principles should contribute to more effective access to lifelong learning.

Conclusion School in France remains, more than ever before, a place of social integration from the earliest years on, even though its contribution cannot equip people with all the knowledge they need to pursue their careers and to develop their full potential. School, in a general manner, has a decisive role during the formative years in giving the child a grounding in the general culture and equipping him or her with the fundamental skills and knowledge that are the essential prerequisites for further education. At the same time as it gives this essential grounding, school remains a place where people are inducted into society – more so than in the family, which nowadays does not always fulfil its traditional role. School plays a part in this induction by opening doors, not only to others, but to the community at large and at the earliest age, school is the cradle of citizenship. Indeed, the objectives of school are not limited to the acquisition of knowledge in ‘traditional’ scholarly disciplines, school also contributes to the forming of citizens by teaching civic matters. A further essential function of school, that has been highlighted by the changes in society, is the task of teaching students how to learn and to whet their appetites for knowledge and learning. To achieve this, school has to instil learning methods and techniques in students, as well as enabling students to apply throughout life what they have learned. It must provide children with the foundation to secure their future self-reliance, and help them become capable of organising work, carrying out research, analysing and processing information; in other words, to enable individuals to manage the skills which are not only useful for the career or private life, but are essential for learning in all contexts. Whether communicating with others, working as part of a team, analysing a text or an audiovisual message, individuals exercise these critical faculties. But if the school’s main mission is ultimately to whet the appetite for knowledge and learning, the counselling and guidance service is not simply an instrument for information transfer and for matching supply with demand as effectively as possible, it is a service for the promotion of learning. Much more fundamentally, it is an educative process in itself, which aims to develop autonomous citizens who can envisage a personal life project and work proactively towards achieving their goals. 86

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

While youth are still the prime target of efforts to improve the French education and training system, it is also important to provide education and training to those adults who have received little education, who have not had the opportunity to realise their full potential, or who need to adjust their personal and vocational skills to adapt to changes. The experience of the Open University and of the actual adult education system in France, shows that people, for whom the conventional education system has failed, can attain high standards at the undergraduate level and, for some, beyond that. France also has a very high level of continuing education activities compared with other countries because of the 1971 law. But, if France has the highest percentage of the active population having benefited from continuing education in the past 12 months, most of the training programmes proposed are focused on supporting professional matters instead of social or cultural ones as initially planned by the law. Moreover, the French education and training systems, which up to now have concentrated on young people, must continue to pursue this mission and also find new ways of opening up to the whole of the population in order to meet the needs for access to lifelong learning. Globalisation and the advance of information and telecommunications technologies have lead to substantial changes in job content, resulting in more autonomy and responsibilities for the individual, and an increase in the fragmentation within the world of work. The transition to the information society consequently implies that everyone has to adapt, not only to new technical tools, but also to changes in work organisation and working conditions. This adaptation is crucial and these changes enhance individual responsibility in making use of the new kinds of educational facilities and possibilities that will be developed within such a society. Therefore, alongside traditional forms, defined in relation to age groups and specific socio-occupational profiles (compulsory school, continuing vocational training for employees on permanent work contracts), a new urgent need is being generated for learning that is informal and continually updated. Given this constantly increasing demand, French education and training authorities have to adjust the system to take account of individual and group needs. These needs exist at all levels of education and training. This, inevitably, implies solid basic training, teaching/learning methods suited to the new patterns of behaviour and to the new technologies essential in the workplace, and education and training establishments capable of learning and moving with the times. These new technologies open up significant prospects, including within the world of education and training, but such prospects suppose that as many people as possible can have access to these technologies and be able to use them. And regarding this point, the slowness with which France is adapting its educational systems to these new demands must be stressed. In the context of the learning society, another concern is about the ways of organising ‘informal achievement’ because the basic principles of education must go far beyond a purely utilitarian perspective, i.e. must extend to all 87

Bénédicte Gendron

educational activities outside school. Knowledge obtained other than through university or occupational routes, for example by employees whose experience has complemented or outstripped their initial training, the leader of a district association, the organiser of education projects for the handicapped, or for immigrants that have all acquired skills which, although not accredited in an official diploma, nonetheless have a value that should be acknowledged. It is the aim of the identification and accreditation of prior learning. Mature people have a range of skills and knowledge obtained not only from formal learning but also from work and life experience, and this is relevant to their workplace competence. In this spirit, the system for the accreditation of prior learning seeks to recognise and certify this learning and thus avoid the demand for these people to re-learn what they already know. However, the number of people who use this opportunity to accredit work experience remains low. Lastly, if the prime aim of education and training must be the development of the whole person, and this has been stressed since the very beginnings of philosophy, as Aristotle says when he maintains that education must allow man to fulfil himself and find out what he truly is,[1] there is also a second major aim of education, which is socialisation. The resolve to ‘make reasoning popular’ comes from Condorcet, who called on state and public authorities to commit themselves to this aim: ‘Friends of equality and liberty! Unite in your efforts to make the public authorities provide an education which makes reasoning popular’.[2] Education should target everyone, irrespective of gender, ethnicity and social class. It should distinguish between, combine and coordinate, general basic education, vocational education and research. Moreover, this education concerns not only children; it must include continuing education as well. This is the origin of lifelong learning. Subsequently, the school’s socialisation role is expanding. Education and training are expected to fashion the citizen of our nation states, to provide equal opportunities by combating social reproduction, and to promote access to knowledge and to employment. The two fundamental aims noted above, the development of the person and socialisation, have been joined by a third aim, personal and vocational preparation for entering a complex, demanding, and rapidly changing economic world. Because of labour market tensions in France, the emphasis placed on vocationalism has significantly modified educational content, with the introduction of technical subjects and a clearly affirmed will to provide young French people with the knowledge and skills that facilitate a smoother transition to working life. Education and training systems, which up to now have concentrated on young people, must continue to pursue this mission and also find new ways of opening up to the whole of the population in order to meet the needs for access to lifelong learning. The education and training of the 21st century will be a complex mixture of short and long courses, updating of skills and upgrading of qualifications, with a variety of modes of learning, including open and flexible learning, multimedia, and the recognition of skills and knowledge acquired 88

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

from life and work. In order to equip young people for lifelong learning and to facilitate adult access to education and training, reforms should relate both to compulsory education and to subsequent phases and include: • Delaying the point at which people make choices about educational paths. • Facilitating the transfer between education and work, especially through periods of work experience. • Equipping people for lifelong learning and changes of career through broad courses which impart ‘key qualifications’ and the skills of problem-solving and using knowledge, and which make them ‘autonomous learners’, able to identify their own learning needs in the future. • Making entry to higher education more flexible, especially for adults. • Making higher education courses more flexible through modularisation, parttime courses and open learning. • Making vocational qualifications more accessible to adults through modularisation, flexible entry requirements, course lengths, and through recognition of prior achievement. • Improving information, guidance and counselling have to be seen as an crucial prerequisite, both for young people and for adults, to help them choose the most suitable learning opportunities to enable them to face adaption to the radical economic and social upheavals currently taking place in each developed country. L’éducation ne se borne pas à l’enfance et à l’adolescence. L’enseignement ne se limite pas à l’école. Toute la vie, notre milieu est notre éducateur, et un éducateur à la fois sévère et dangereux. (Paul Valéry, Variété, 1924-44)

Correspondence Dr Bénédicte Gendron, Matisse-Les, Maison des Sciences Economiques, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, 106-112 Bd Hopital, F-75013 Paris, France ([email protected]).

Notes [1] Cf. Aristotle, ‘Nicomachean ethics’. [2] Condorcet, ‘Cinq mémoires sur l’instruction publique’, 1791.

Abbreviations ADP: Agency for the Development of Permanent Education ANPE: National Agency for Employment AFPA: Adult Vocational Training Association AGEFOS: Fonds d’Assurance Formation des salariés des PME ASFO: Training Association BTS: Advanced Technician’s Certificate 89

Bénédicte Gendron

BEP: Vocational Studies Certificate CAP: Vocational Aptitude Certificate CARIF: Centre régionaux d’animation et de ressources de l’information sur la formation CEDEFOP: European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training CENTRE INFFO: Centre for the Development of Information About Permanent Training CEREQ: French Centre for Research on Education, Training and Employment CET: Continuing Education and Training CFI: Individual Credit Scheme or Individual Training Credit CIBC: Inter-institutional Centres for Bilans de Compétence CIDJ: Information and Documentation Centre for Young People CIO: Centre for Information and Guidance CNAM: National Conservatory for Arts and Engineering COP: Counsellor-psychologues CPC: Commission professionnelle consultative CPNE: Commission paritaire nationale de l’emploi CQP: Certificat de qualification professionnelle CREDOC: Centre de recherche pour l’étude et l’observation de conditions de vie CRIJ: Regional Centres of Information for Young People (CRIJ) CTH: Commission technique d’homologation des titres et diplômes de l’enseignement technique CPGE: Grandes Ecoles Preparatory Classes CPPN: Pre-professional Level Class DAFCO: Délégué académiques à la formation continue DARES: Direction de l’animation de la recherche, des études et des statistiques DEA: advanced studies diploma DESS: Diploma of Advanced Specialised Studies DEUG: General University Studies Diploma DEUST: Scientific and Technical University Studies Diploma DIJEN: Plan of Action for Transition from School to Work for Youth from the National Education System DPD: Direction of Programming and Development (ex-DEP Department of Assessment and Projection) DUT: University technological diploma EURYDICE: The Education Information Network in Europe FAF: Fonds d’assurance formation (organisme paritaire habilité à recevoir les cotisations des employeurs et des salariés pour financer les formations) FONGEFOR: Fonds national de gestion paritaire de la formation GRETA: Group of establishments INRP: National Institute of Pedagogical Research INSEE: National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies IUFM: University Institute of Teacher Training IUT: University Institutes of Technology (or College of Technology) LEGT: General and Technological Lycées MEN: National Ministry of Education 90

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

OCDE: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development ONISEP: National Office for Information on Studies and Occupations OPACIF: Organisation Approved Bilaterally OPCA: Organisation Approved Bilaterally OPCAREG: Regional Organisation Approved Bilaterally PAIO: Permanent Centres for Information and Guidance SMIC: Minimum Wage STS: Higher Technician Sections (or Classes for the Advanced Technician’s Certificate) UNEDIC: National Union for Employment in Industry and Commerce VAE: Accreditation of Experiential Learning VAP: Accreditation of Work Experience

Selected Bibliography for the Role of Counselling and Guidance in France AFPA (1993) L’AFPA, tout faire pour l’emploi, Ministère du Travail de l’Emploi et de la Formation Professionnelle, Association nationale pour la formation professionnelles des adultes. Aventur, F. & Mobus, M. (1996) La formation continue dans les entreprises: la place de la France en Europe, Céreq Bref, 116, January. Aventur, F., Grelet, Y. & Timoteo, J. (1996) Formation professionnelle des jeunes et insertion, portrait statistiques régionaux. Rapport pour la mission d’évaluation des politiques régionales de formation initiale, continue et apprentissage du Comité de Coordination de la loi quinquennale, Document Céreq. Bentabet, E. & Trouve, P. (1996) Les très petites entreprises, pratiques et représentations de la formation continue, Céreq Bref, 123, september. Berton, F. & Podevin, G. (1991) Vingt ans de formation professionnelle continue: de la promotion sociale à la gestion de l’emploi, Formation Emploi, 34, pp.14-31. Biret, J., Combes, M-C. & Lechaux, P. (1984) Centres de formation d’apprentis et formes d’apprentissage, Céreq, Collection des Etudes. Bonnel, R. (1978) La formation professionnelle continue et l’analyse economique, Economica. Bref Céreq (1990) Formation et promotion en France depuis 20 ans, Céreq Bref, 59. Bref Céreq (1996) La formation continue dans les entreprises: la place de la France en Europe, Céreq Bref, 116. Bref Céreq (1996) Les dispositifs d’aide à l’insertion des jeunes: différer l’âge d’accès à l’emploi, Céreq Bref, 119. Bref Céreq (1996) Se former tout au long de la vie?, Céreq Bref, 120. Bref Céreq (1996) L’individualisation des carrières et des compétences: un objet de négociation, Céreq Bref, 121. Bref Céreq (1996) L’apprentissage en 1996: du Cap au diplôme d’ingénieur, Céreq Bref, 122. Bref Céreq (1996) Les très petite entreprises, pratiques et représentations de la formation continue’, Céreq Bref, 123. 91

Bénédicte Gendron

Bref Céreq (1996) L’offre de formation, entre politiques nationales et besoins locaux, Céreq Bref, 124. Bref Céreq (1996) Les organismes de formation continue, pluralité des activités, diversité de gestion des personnels, Céreq Bref, 126. Bref Céreq (1997) La gestion paritaire des fonds de la formation, génèse et enjeux d’un nouveau système, Céreq Bref, 131. Bref Céreq (1997) Politiques régionales de formation professionnelle, les premiers effets de la loi quinquennale de 1993, Céreq Bref. Brochier, D. and Lamanthe, A. (1991) Formations en alternance et gestion locale de la relation formation-emploi, Céreq Document de travail 70. Calafuri, D. (1996) Heurs et malheurs du bilan de compétences, Revue de l’IRES, 20. Cepede, J-P. (1992) Bilan de compétences: un nouveau droit, Inffo Flash, 372. Cereq Collection des Etudes (1989) Formation continue et compétitivité économique. Rapport de mission au Secrétariat d’Etat à la formation professionnelle, no. 51. Chisholm, L. (1994) Determining the need for vocational counselling among different target group of young people under 28 years of age in the European Community, Cedefop Panorama. Clemenceau, P. (1984) Du chantier à l’école: la spécificité de la formation continue, Formation Emploi, 6. Cochinaux, Ph. & De Woot, Ph. (1995) Moving Towards a Learning Society, A CRE-ERT Forum Report on European Education. Colardyn, D. (1989) Bilans de compétences personnelles et professionnelles. Approches historique des pratiques indispensables et diversifiées, Centre Inffo, Délégation à la formation professionnelle, Collection ‘La formation professionnelle continue’. The College Board (1978) Lifelong Learning during Adulthood, An Agenda for Research, The Advisory Panel on Research Needs in Lifelong Learning during Adulthood, Future Directions for a Learning Society, College Entrance Examination Board, New York, 1978. Commission of the European Communities (1995) Teaching and Learning, Towards the Learning Society, White paper on Education and Training. Commission of the European Communities (1995) Apprendre dans la société de l’information (1996-98), Plan d’action pour une initiative européenne dans l’éducation, Communication au Parlement Européen et au Conseil au Comité Economique et Social et au Comité des Régions. Commission of the European Communities (1996) L’éducation et la formation tout au long de la vie: un enjeu pour la Xxieme siècle, Rapport de la commission DGXXII, ‘Education, Training, Youth’. Commission of the European Communities (1996) Accomplir l’Europe par l’Education et la Formation, rapport du groupe de réflexion sur l’éducation et la formation. Commission of the European Communities (1996) Educational Software and Multimedia, Annex to Final Report, Country reports, Draft version, Industryresearch Task Force. Commission of the European Communities (1996) The 1996 European Year of Lifelong Learning; Conference Abstracts.

92

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

Dares, Premières Informations (1996) Les organismes prestataires de bilans de compétences, 96-13.1, no. 515-21 March 1996. Dep (1996) L’education nationale en chiffres, 1995-1996, Ministère de l’Education Nationale. Dep (1996) L’état de l’école, Ministère de l’Education Nationale. Dep (1996) Note d’information, La formation des adultes réalisée dans les Greta, Bilan 1994, no. 96.13, Ministère de l’Education Nationale. Dep (1996) Education-formations, Formation professionnelle et enseignement technologique, no. 45, Ministère de l’Education Nationale. Drake, K. & Germe, J.F. (1994) Financing Continuing Training: what are the lessons from international comparison?’ Cedefop Panorama. Entreprises Formation (1993) Bilan: Le bout du labyrinthe?, Entreprises Formation, 66/2, March, Magazine des professionnels de la formation. Eurydice/Cedefop (1995) Structures de l’education et de la formation initiale dans la communité européenne. Formation Emploi (1984) L’alternance aujourd’hui, deux formes d’apprentissage, Formation Emploi, 7. Formation Emploi (1986) La formation continue et l’entreprise, Formation Emploi, 16. Formation Emploi (1991) La formation professionnelle continue (1971-1991), Formation Emploi, special issue, 34. Formation Professionnelle et Apprentissages (1989) Les centres de bilan des compétences personnelles et professionnelles, Formation Professionnelle et Apprentissages, 422. Gauthier R-G. (1996), Les ressources multimédias en éducation – 1ères rencontres de l’ORME, Paris: NDP (La collection de l’ingéniérie éducative). Gehin, J-p. (1985) Les institutions de formation continue: diversité des interventions patronales, Formation Emploi, 11. Gehin, J-p. (1989) L’évolution de la formation continue dans les secteurs d’activité (1973-1985), Formation Emploi, 25, and Collection des Etudes, 47. Gendron, B. (1996) L’évolution de la transition de l’école vers la vie active en France, Report for the annual OECD report Employment Outlook 96, January, p.100. Gendron, B. (1997) D’une stratégie de formation à une stratégie d’employabilité: analyse de la poursuite d’études après un Bts ou un Dut, Thèse de Doctorat en Sciences Economiques, Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. Gendron, B. (1998) Lifelong Learning in France: an Insight, in Learning to Monitor Lifelong learning, NCRVE Publication – University of Berkeley, California, Mds1162, November, pp. 4-109. Gouteron, A., Bernadaux, J. & Camoin J.P. (1997) S’orienter pour mieux réussir, Rapport du Sénat, Mission d’information sur l’information et l’orientation des étudiants des premiers cycles universitaires, no. 81-1996/1997. Insee (1996) Données sociales 1996, La société française. Jarousse, J.P. & Orivel, F. (1995) Analyse des caractéristiques des motivations du public du Télé-enseignement en France, Etude pour la Direction Générale des Enseignements Supérieurs du Ministère de l’Education Nationale.

93

Bénédicte Gendron

Keegan, D. (1996), Foundations on Distance Education, Distance Educational International Ltd, Dublin. Kogut-kubiak, F. & Quintero, N. (1996) L’individualisation des carrières et des compétences: un objet de négociation, Céreq Bref, 121, June. Knox, A.B. (1977) Adult Development and Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Lietard, B. & Perker, H. (1994) Continuum entre l’enseignement obligatoire, la formation initiale et continue, l’éducation des adultes en France, CNAM/Centre Inffo, Cedefop Panorama, Paris. Luttringer, J-M. (1994) La formation professionnelle: nouveaux chantiers, Droit Social, 2, February. Luttringer, J-M. (1995) Formation professionnelle, la réforme des organismes paritaires collecteurs agréés (Opca), Droit Social, 3, March. Mehaut, P. (1996) Se former tout au long de la vie, Céreq Bref, 120, May. Ministere du Travail, de l’emploi et de la Formation Professionnelle, Délégation à la Formation Professionnelle (1992) Les formations en alternance, Collection Recherche en formation continue, La Documentation Française. Ministere du Travail, de l’emploi et de la Formation Professionnelle, Délégation à la Formation Professionnelle (1992) Reconnaissance et validation des acquis, Centre Inffo. Mobus, M. (1995) Politiques de branche et stratégies des lieux des entreprises: état des lieux, Actes des Journées d’Etudes, 9 November 1995 on the theme of L’Alternance, DARES. Nallet, J-f. (1991) Le droit de la formation: une construction juridique fondatrice, Formation Emploi, 34, p.14. OECD (1995) Education at a Glance, OECD Indicators. OECD (1996) Lifelong Learning for All: meeting of the Education Committee at Ministerial Level 16-17 January. Osbert, G. & Heurtaux, P. (1996) Les organismes prestataires de bilans de compétences, Premières informations, Dares, 96-13.1, no. 515. Pacteau, C. (1994) L’évaluation aujourd’hui: comment mesurer les compétences, Sciences Humaines, 35. Pasquier, J. (1989) Le développement des centres interinstitutionnelles de bilan de compétences personnelles et professionnelles (CIBC), Flash Formation Continue, 285. Perker, H., Gerard F., Leplatre, F. & Maillard, D. (1992) Systemes and procedure of certification of qualifications in France, Centre Inffo, National Report, Cedefop Panorama. Perker, H., Leplatre, F. & Ward, C. (1996) Identification et validation des savoir-faire et des connaissances acquises dans la vie et les expériences de travail, Rapport comparatif France/UK, Cedefop. Peterson, R.E. et al (1979) Lifelong Learning in America. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Rault, C. (1994) La formation professionnelle initiale, contrastes et similitudes en France et en Europe, Notes et Etudes documentaires, no. 4987, 1994-2. Remond, B. (1992) Décentralisation et formations professionnelles continues: un système mal équilibré, Formation Emploi, 40. 94

COUNSELLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

Romani, C. (1996) Evaluation des politiques régionales de formation professionnelle, Rapport d’activité 1993-96, Comité de coordination, Premier Ministre, June. Savoyant, A. (1996) Une approche cognitive de l’alternance, Céreq Bref, 118, March. Tanguy, L. (1991) L’enseignement professionnel en France, Des ouvriers aux techniciens, PUF. Verdier, E. (1995) Politiques de formation des jeunes et marché du travail, la France des années 80, Formation Emploi, 50. Vincens, J. (1995) Graduates and the Labour Market in France, European Journal of Education, 30(2).

APPENDIX: Main Information Structures on Education and Training AFPA, Association nationale pour la formation professionnelle des adultes. This nonprofit organisation for adult vocational training is administered by the Ministry of Labour Force, Employment and Vocational Training. It assists the Ministry by providing guidance, assessment, first job entrance, pre-training, and vocational training services to individuals. AFPA works with companies, but also with workers and people looking for occupational or personal promotion. Each year, it guides 160 000 people and trains 130 000 trainees. Its serves 200 establishments and provides 500 different kinds of training programmes. ANPE, Agence nationale pour l’emploi. The ANPE operates 26 regional delegations, 101 departmental delegations, and a network of 750 points for agencies. Created by the decree of 13 July 1967, the ANPE, is involved in the administration of public service for employment on the behalf of the state. It is responsible for the job vacations prospects, for the job-seekers placement, information, guidance, and vocational advice for workers. CARIF, Centre d’animation et de ressources de l’information sur la formation. Integrated in the Contrats de Plan 1983-88 and progressively set up in the different regions, the CARIFs have to connect at an interinstitutional and intersectorial level, information about training programmes in each region. Therefore, two purposes can be identified: a function as a resource centre and an information broadcasting role. Therefore, it can provide all the pieces of information about the different training programmes existing and set up in different places in France. CIBC, Centre inter institutionnel de bilans de compétences personnelles et professionnelles. Approximately 110 centres in France. The CIBC gather, under the administration of the Vocation Training Delegation, the Ministry of National Education, the AFPA, the ANPE, and other relevant associations. Its objective (described above) is to provide personal or occupational competence audits for all public, either individual demanded, or firms demanded or by other partners, such as FONGECIF, CIO, ALE, Missions locales, PAIO, etc.

95

Bénédicte Gendron

CIO, Centre d’information et d’orientation. Created in 1972, the 650 CIOs are centres created by the Ministry of National Education. In the centres are guidance counsellors and advisers. Their role is to inform all individuals and especially young people about: • the occupations and trainings that correspond to the individual’s wants and needs; • the continuing vocational education; • the guidance counsellor and adviser know the local situations and therefore are able to provide adequate information. DRFP, Délégation régionale à la formation professionnelle. The DRFP is a service of the region prefecture, located in the General Secretary to Regional Affairs. Its mission is, firstly to implement the State training policies at a local level and secondly to check the companies expenses that supposedly fund the continuing vocational training programme as well as the training organisations. DRTE, Direction régionale du travail et de l’emploi. An outside service of the labour administration, the DRTEs have to realise the coordination and the checking of the activities and programmes of the labour and job department and the labour inspection. The labour administration has to verify if the labour legislation is respected in case of a problem with a company. GRETA, Groupement d’établissements. Besides its responsibilities in initial vocational training, the Ministry of Education also plays an important role in continuing training. Education establishments regrouped within an organisation of establishments (GRETA) accomplish their mission of continuing training for adults as provided for by the law. Each year, GRETA trains more than half a million persons, the expenses being undertaken by private or public enterprises, by the State or local councils. In certain situations GRETA permits the Ministry of Education to develop its activities, based on original elements and work methods, adaptable to the diverse public and to the requirements. Mission Locale. Created in 1982, as a non-profit organisation by law 1901, these missions are administered by the mayor of the local community. Missions welcome young people around 16-25 years olds who have difficulties as well as occupational problems. It provides a service with help in individual guidance from a personal route to a occupational one. It broadens the PAIO missions. PIAO, Permanence d’accueil, d’information et d’orientation. These organisations have been created at either the initiative of the Commissaire de la République de Région or at the initiatives of local communities. Without their own institutional identity, the 500 establishments are integrated in other organisations, such as CIO and GRETA. Their aim is: • to welcome young people from 16 to 18 years olds who have left the education system without any qualification and job; • to inform about the opportunities of training; • guide towards a social transition process and vocational qualification. 96