ATP Participants Study Visit in France

Twenty-eight participants from the 49th Annual Training Programme visited the Académie of Nancy-Metz from 17 to 21 February 2014. The study visit was organized by the French National Commission for UNESCO. This year, the study visit:

• Began with a detailed presentation of the governance of the French educational system, given by the French National College for Education Management, Higher Education and Research(ESENESR).
• Highlighted secondary education, in particular addressing how the training system in France is adapting to the growing need to integrate young people into the world of work, notably through the development of technical and vocational training programmes.
• Allowed a comparison between vocational training systems in France and Germany, with the group spending a day in the German federal state of Saarland. This visit was organized by the German National Commission for UNESCO, and a part of the day was spent visiting a company, Festo, which offers dual training programmes.

The Regional Education Area Office of the Académie of Nancy-Metz gave a series of presentations enabling participants to: understand how to draw up a map of professional skills in connection with the labour market; analyse the supply of technical and vocational training at the secondary level; and familiarize themselves with the procedures for student counselling and guidance. In addition to the presentations given by the inspectors of Académie and the Vice-President of the Regional Council of Lorraine, the group visited eight secondary and post-secondary schools.

The participants also had the opportunity to share lessons learned with the Recteur* of theAcadémie of Nancy-Metz, Ms Béatrice Gille. Among the issues addressed were:

• the time spent on practical training in the technical and vocational streams;
• opportunities for reorientation between general and vocational streams;
• incentive measures to encourage teachers to provide quality training;
• strategies to prevent school failure, in particular in Priority Education Zones;
• the integration of young graduates from technical and vocational programmes into the labour market;
• the development of cross-border programmes for training and integration in the SaarLorLux  (Saarland, Lorraine, Luxemburg) region.

* Chief Education Officer for the Region