Name of Educational Leave Scheme

Paid Educational leave

• Introduction
• Legal framework
• Objectives
• Types of training
• Training providers
• Target sector(s)
• Target group(s)
• Eligibility criteria
• Stipulations for participants
• Duration of training
• Status of participants
• Application procedure
• Regulation, control and monitoring procedures
• Funding mechanisms
• Payment to persons on leave
• Statistics

Legal framework

State Servants

Servants with tenure
Decree No 85-607 dated 14 June 1985, as amended by decrees No 90-436 of 28 May 1990, No 93-410 of 19 March 1993, and No 96-1104 of 11 December 1996, governs the vocational training leave scheme which applies to state servants with tenure.

Servants without tenure
Decree No 75-205 of 26 March 1975, as amended by decrees No 81-340 of 7 April 1981, No 90-435 of 28 May 1990, No 93-428 of 24 March 1993 and No 96-1105 of 11 December 1996, governs the vocational training leave scheme which applies to State servants without tenure.

State workers
Decree No 81-334 of 7 April 1981, as amended by decrees No 92-68 of 16 January 1992, No 93-409 of 19 March 1993, No 96-1103 of 11 December 1996, and No 98-1031 of 6 November 1998 governs the vocational training leave scheme which applies to State workers.

Regional Servants

Servants with tenure

Servants without tenure
Vocational training leave for servants without tenure is governed by the provisions of Law No 84-594 of 12 July 1984, Article 6 (OJ of 13.7.84), and its implementing decrees No 85-1076 of 9 October 1985, Article 15-18 (OJ of 11.10.85) and No 88-145 of 15 February 1988, Article 25 (OJ of 16.2.88).

Hospital Workers
Law No 86-33 of 9 January 1986, Article 41/6e (OJ of 11.1.86 and 18.1.86) defines the entitlement to vocational training leave and its methods of financing. Its implementing decree, No 90-319 of 5 April 1990, Article 9 (OJ of 10.4.90) specifies the rules on conditions of access to leave, its duration and its implementation.

Types of training

State and Regional Servants
Vocational training leave may only be granted in order to take courses which have been State approved by a ruling of the Minister responsible for the civil service.

Hospital Workers
Training undertaken by the servant must be of a vocational nature, and be based on objectives, teaching methods and a mechanism which allow its progress to be tracked and its impact to be assessed. It takes the form of organised and monitored courses aimed at acquiring knowledge, ability and skills.

Any public or private organisation

Applies to all public and administrative establishments

Applies to all public servants.

Servants of the State
Vocational training leave applies to state servants with and without tenure, as well as to state workers.

A civil servant seconded by his original administration to a regional administration or establishment may take vocational training leave as long as he is granted leave authorisation by the original administration following approval by the host administration.

Regional Servants
Applies to regional servants both with and without tenure.

Hospital Workers
Vocational training leave is accessible to all hospital workers both with and without tenure, as well as to midwives. The same applies to occupational health officers as contracted staff.

Eligibility criteria

State and Regional Servants
To be eligible for vocational training leave, the servant must:

• meet a length of service condition;
• take a course approved by a ruling of the Minister responsible for the Civil Service;
• respect an interim period since his last vocational training leave or the last vocational training course taken;
• request leave authorisation from his head of service.

Hospital Workers
Vocational training leave is accessible as long as the hospital worker:

• meets the length of service criterion which applies in public hospitals;
• obtains a dossier from a regional delegation of the National Association for the continuing training of hospital staff;
• submits an application for leave;
• submits his funding application to the regional management committee for vocational training leave.

Length of Service Conditions
Public servants are required to have provided at least 3 years of effective service in the Administration.

State servants without tenure must be able to prove 36 months or the equivalent of 36 months of effective service, whether or not consecutive, on public contracts, of which 12 months, whether or not consecutive, have been provided in the administration to which the application for educational leave has been submitted.

Frequency
A servant who has taken a vocational training course provided during his career, or who has taken vocational training leave, may not be granted vocational training leave in the 12 months following the end of the training course for which he was granted permission, unless it was not possible to complete the course due to the requirements of the service.

The maximum length of leave and therefore of training is 3 years for civil servants with or without tenure. Vocational training leave may be used in one block or spread throughout the servant's career in units of full-time training lasting at least one month. Moreover, if the servant is recruited on a fixed-term contract leave may not be granted beyond the end of the remainder of the term. Some specific provisions do however apply to certain types of servant.

Regional Servants without tenure
Vocational training leave may not exceed:

• 3 months in the case of continuous full-time training;
• 300 hours in the case of training units making up a course of separate or part-time modules.

Hospital Workers
From a maximum duration of 3 years, 12 months may be paid for.

In the agreement protocol concluded with the signatory trade union organisations on 14 March 2000, the government committed itself to proposing to Parliament that it extend the duration of financial cover by one year, where training lasts two years or more.

Time spent on vocational training leave is deemed to be time spent in the service. The servant, deemed to be in a working situation, is entitled to sit a civil service exam. He continues to be affiliated to the social security system, to receive family allowances and to retain the right to promotion (except for servants without tenure). The period of vocational training leave is included in the calculation of annual leave and seniority (except for servants without tenure). Civil pension contributions are paid (except for servants without tenure).

A servant on vocational training leave commits himself in a written document to stay within the civil service for a period equal to three times the length of the period during which he received payment under educational leave (a maximum of 36 months), or, if he leaves the civil service before such date, to pay back the amount he received. However, state servants without tenure are not required to serve within the Administration following their vocational training leave.

State Servants
Any servant wishing to take vocational training leave must submit his application at least 120 days prior to the start of training. The competent authority must make its answer known within 30 days. It is not possible to refuse if the expenses attached to vocational training leave do not amount to 0.20% of aggregate remuneration.

Before refusing for a third time, or where the refusal is on grounds related to the interests of the service, the Administration is required to consult the administrative joint commission for its opinion. In case of refusal, reasoned grounds must be given for the application being rejected.

Two grounds may be invoked:

• the budgetary appropriations situation;
• incompatibility with the smooth running of the service.

An application for vocational training leave may only be refused on 3 successive occasions following the opinion of the joint administrative commission.

Regional Servants
A servant wishing to take vocational training leave must apply to the regional authorities. The application for vocational training leave must be submitted 90 days before the start of the course. It should indicate the starting date of the course, the type of course, and the name of the organisation providing the course.

Within 30 days of receiving the application, the regional authorities must inform the applicant of their approval, or the grounds for refusing or postponing the application. Within the same time limit, the regional authorities may inform the applicant that their approval depends on the servant's remuneration being funded by the competent management centre. They then have a further 30 days to decide on the application. Applications for vocational training leave may not be refused if expenses related thereto do not amount to 0.1% of the gross aggregate salaries in each regional authority.

Hospital Workers
In order to take vocational training leave, the worker must go through a 2-stage procedure: one stage involves applying for administrative leave authorisation, and the other applying for funding. To do this, the hospital worker must obtain a dossier from the regional delegation of the National Association for the vocational training of hospital staff (ANFH) which contains 3 forms on:

• administrative leave authorisation
• the worker's personal application
• the training organisation.

In order to obtain funding for his leave, the worker must have been granted administrative leave authorisation. The worker's application for leave authorisation may be turned down in 2 cases:

• in the interests of the running of the service, which depends on the assessment of the authority with the power of appointment;
• when the number of workers on vocational training leave at any one time exceeds 2% of the total number of paid workers in the establishment on 31 December of the previous year.

He must also have filled in the personal application form and had the part reserved for the training provider in question completed.

Then he begins to apply for funding to the regional vocational training leave management committee (within the ANFH) under which his company falls. He submits the entire dossier to it, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt.

In accordance with the rules, conditions and general guidelines established by the national management committee, the regional vocational training leave management committees implement vocational training policy within their respective geographical areas, based on the priority criteria which they have set.

Since on average the regional management committees meet every 6-7 weeks, the hospital worker must allow a gap of 5-6 months between the submission of his application for administrative authorisation, and the start of his course. A timetable of meeting dates is available from the regional committees.

The funding decision depends on the exclusive competence of the vocational training leave management committee. The funding application may be rejected according to the priorities defined at national and regional level and, in this case, the servant may surrender his permission for administrative leave should he so wish.

Funding mechanisms

State Servants
Vocational training leave is funded from a budget calculated on the basis of 0.20% of the gross salaries and allowances set out in the budget of the ministry or public administrative body to which the servant belongs. Whether or not the 0.20% financial threshold has been reached must be assessed overall for all the various services within a ministerial department.

Regional Servants
The communes, departments, regions and their public establishments are required to pay a mandatory contribution to the CNFPT. The level of contribution, which is voted on by the CNFPT Board, may not exceed 1% of aggregate remunerations. Vocational training leave is funded from an unstipulated percentage of this budget.

Hospital Servants
Public hospitals are required to pay an annual contribution amounting to 0.15% of the remunerations paid to public hospital workers to the approved body mentioned in Article 41-6 of the Law dated 9 January 1986, which is responsible for managing and pooling appropriations for vocational training leave.

In the draft agreement concluded on 14 March 2000 the Government promised to propose that Parliament increase the level of contributions towards vocational training leave to 0.20%.

Payment to persons on leave costs are to be met by the servant.

Servants without tenure A servant on vocational training leave receives a remuneration equivalent to 75% of the gross salary and housing allowance he was receiving when he took leave.

Hospital Workers
A servant who has been granted vocational training leave and financial cover by the approved joint organisation receives a flat-rate monthly allowance.

The flat-rate monthly allowance is equivalent to 85% of the total salary, plus the housing allowance he was receiving when he took leave.

In 1997, 6227 State servants took training leave or some other specific form of leave; this represents 2 881 014 hours of training.

In the public hospital service, expenses related to vocational training leave amounted to FRF 212 million in 1997, and FRF 207 million in 1998. The major increase due to a volontaristic policy to soak up surplus funding collected in previous years is levelling off.

The number of servants taking vocational training leave which rose by 20% per year in 1996 and 1997 is now levelling off, with a 2% increase in 1998 (3904 servants on leave). The average length of leave, which was 6 months when the scheme first began in 1990, stood at 5 months in 1998. Leave fell from 174 days in 1996 to 161 days in 1997, and 157 in 1998. Almost 6 out of every 10 servants who took vocational training leave in 1998 have more than 10 years' service.