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No. 1/1999

France

National association for the vocational training of adults: seven objectives for the future

  The Association nationale pour la formation professionnelle des adultes (AFPA - National association for the vocational training of adults), which comes under the Ministry for Education and Solidarity, is a component of the public employment service, together with the Agence nationale pour l'emploi (ANPE) and decentralised ministerial departments in the French regions and départements. Operating on a national scale, it is one of the most important job training agencies in France, with over 400 establishments throughout the country. Its special feature is its tripartite management: the governmental authorities, and employers' and employees' organisations.

Over the next five years, AFPA is to focus its efforts on providing services to jobseekers, to help them return to working life. On 28 January 1999 the Association signed a second contract for development with the state covering the period from 1999 to 2003 (the first contract covered the years from 1994 to 1998). The purpose is to establish AFPA more firmly in its mission of supporting the authorities. It defines seven "progress objectives".

ANPE has also signed a progress contract with the state covering the same period. With its expertise in the labour market, the Agency has set itself the aim of consolidating its share of the market by registering three million job vacancies a year.

With the declared intention of strengthening the complementary links between the two public bodies, AFPA is to cooperate with ANPE on organising an integrated mechanism for providing personalised support to jobseekers and for contributing, through the provision of guidance, job training and the certification of qualifications, to the achievement of the objectives defined by the government's national action plan for employment. It is to reinforce its links with its partners in the public employment department in the hopes of working "closer to the grassroots".

The state is to provide budget support to AFPA "to back the improvement in its overall performance" and to help it to achieve the following seven objectives:

  • by the end of 2001, 80% of jobseekers entering the training system will be covered by the joint service to support career plans created by AFPA and ANPE
  • the entry of a beneficiary to the training system will be formally recorded in an "individual training commitment" concluded between the beneficiary and AFPA and describing his/her progress
  • more adults will be included among the beneficiaries receiving publicly funded training
  • the AFPA mechanism will be targeted towards achieving the aims and priorities defined in the national action plan for employment
  • in each centre, all the officials and technical staff will develop activities entailing direct involvement in the workplace
  • each major field of training will be the subject of close scrutiny
  • AFPA will arrange for the optimum allocation of its staff to direct production activities.
By the end of the contract for development, all AFPA training courses should lead to the certification of the skills acquired (by means of a full or partial qualification). The validation arrangements will give scope for recognition of vocational competences acquired through experience. The procedures for the validation of these competences, obtained in or outside training, will be studied jointly with ANPE.
For further information:
AFPA - Association nationale pour la formation professionnelle des adultes
13, place du Général de Gaulle - F-93108 Montreuil cedex
Tel. (33-1) 48 70 50 00 - Fax (33-1) 48 70 51 84 - Internet: www.afpa.fr

Source: INFFO Flash/Centre Inffo

 
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