フランス高等教育における職業教育

In France, a so-called “dual system” is employed where two types of higher education institutions (HEIs)-universités and grandes écoles-coexist with different purposes. While in the latter, education has traditionally been vocationally oriented, universities have offered mainly academic courses. However, since the 1960s, vocationalisation (professionnalisation in French) of programmes has progressed in the university sector, such as the creation of IUTs (internal technical colleges) in 1966 and of the licence professionnelle (vocational bachelor) in 1999.
Throughout Europe, the process of vocationalisation has been accelerated by European Commission’s policy, in particular “Education and Training (E&T)”, boosted by the Lisbon Strategy (2000) that focuses on economic growth and increased employment. In higher education, the Commission has promoted competency-based learning, by means of various instruments including the Bologna Process (particularly as regards development of qualifications frameworks and quality assurance systems) and E&T, influencing member countries’ higher education systems, including the French, despite national specificities related to the transition from university to the labour market, above all in the French context the “adéquation” (adequacy).
In France, along with other countries, amelioration of employment and enhancement of students’ employability have become a major concern of society in the course of massification of higher education. Gradually, competency-based learning has prevailed in French universities. In 2018, the Loi ORE (Law for Student Orientation and Success) requires every university to define “expected competencies in bachelor’s” by programme. In addition, the labour market has also increasingly shed light on the competencies required of workers during the employment process.
This book, concerning vocational education in French higher education, aims to structurally analyse the historical development, policies and reforms undertaken and issues at stake, and then to give some thoughts to Japanese higher education which shares similar problems in the matter.