Preparations are currently under way for a reform of vocational training in France. The reform has been announced by the Minister of Employment and Solidarity, Martine Aubry, and a Secretary of State for vocational training, Nicole Péry, has been entrusted by the Minister with responsibility for this major project. The French system is based on a tripartite responsibility structure: central government, regional government and the social partners. This means that central government cannot take decisions or act alone, and the reform will therefore proceed on the basis of cooperation and collective negotiation, following on from a diagnosis of the current situation shared with all the actors in the French system of vocational training.
The evaluation of the current system is certainly positive: Aubry has said that "clearly, the 1971 law has proved able to successively adapt to developments in the world of work and on the labour market", and substantial resources have been mobilised1. On the other hand, during the last 25 years, France has experienced profound economic, social and cultural changes, and the existing legislation suffers from a number of major defects:
- the system has become complex, opaque and incomprehensible to many of those affected: it encompasses a large number of actors whose roles and responsibilities overlap;
- it does not serve to reduce social inequalities: managerial staff are three times as likely to benefit from vocational training than a blue-collar worker in the same company2.
The aim of Minister Aubry is "to re-establish an effective right to training, to skill upgrading, and to social and vocational progress throughout one's working life".
She has also defined three central guidelines:
- the creation of an effective right to training for everyone, vocational training for school-leavers, better access to qualification and training in the enterprise;
- recognition of the skills and qualifications acquired during the course of working life, constructing a new system that is more open and that offers recognition for work experience and broadens the perspectives for occupational mobility;
- giving genuine chances to jobseekers to gain access to training, especially those facing the greatest difficulties on the labour market. The law on the fight against social exclusion, passed last June, already contains provisions to this end3.
The discussions on the reform are making progress. On 13 October, Péry announced that a White Paper would be published in mid-November on continuing vocational training. By the end of 1998, a report to the cabinet is expected to set out in detail the timetable for the reform, with a bill to be presented to parliament in the second half of 1999. The reform would then come into force in the year 2002.
EU – European Commission DG EMPL/A/2 J
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