Chapter 3
Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance

Category: Government Distance Training Institution
Country: France
Locations: Poiters, Grenoble, Lyon, Rennes, Rouen, Toulouse, Nantes, Paris, Lille.
Language of instruction: French

CNED Direction Générale
Téléport 2 - Boulevard 1
BP 300
F - 86960 Futuroscope cedex
 

The Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance (Cned) is the EU's largest provider of vocational education and training. It teaches only at a distance.

Official Status

The invasion of France led to the creation of the Centre National d'Enseignement par Correspondence (Cnec) by a government decree of 2 December 1939 to meet the needs of schoolchildren dislocated by war. In the mid-1980s the name was changed to its present form, Cned, which might be translated as National Centre for Distance Training. The Cned is a public administrative establishment under the supervision of the French Ministry of Education, comprising a central directorate and eight institutes. When the annual enrolment in Paris reached 150,000 in the early 1970s a major structural change was achieved. Administrative control of programmes was divided into six centres: Paris (Vanves), Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Rouen and Toulouse. Rennes was added in 1982 and the eighth, Poitiers-Futuroscope, in 1992. A decree of 7th May 1988 restructured the governing body of the Cned (Conseil d'Administration) to comprise representatives of industry, politics and the universities.

Training Provision : courses

The present course structure is:
Centre Training curricula
Grenoble Industrial certificates
Sport and tourism
Physical education
Public service qualifications
Lille Public service qualifications
Law
Lyon Accountancy
Nursing
Health education
Commercial qualifications
Poitiers-Futuroscope Industrial and service sectors
Modern languages
Rennes Paramedical qualifications
Biotechnology
Secondary education
Rouen Communication and publicity
Architecture
Pharmacy
Toulouse Primary education
Teacher education
Biological qualifications
Vanves (Paris) DEUG (two year university degree)
Licence and diploma (university)
Capes (teacher education)
Capet (teacher education
Agrégation

Training provision: certification

The Cned provides VET certification at both higher education level and further education level.

Higher Education 198,507 enrolments in 1996.

The Cned offers certification at five levels: It also prepares for entry to teaching and administrative positions (postgraduate diploma in education or in administration)

Administration 24,617
CRPE (primary teaching) 36,944
CAPES (secondary teaching) 31,256
CAPET (technical teaching) 9,681
Agrégation (university teaching) 14,785
BTS sundry examination 39,986
198,507

These qualifications are offered in the following discipline areas:

These university programmes are taught at a distance by the Cned for degrees awarded by 47 French universities:

Further education

There are in all 3,300 different courses listed in the Guide des formations 1997/8 ranging from primary school courses to post-graduate university courses. Most of them are for competitive State examinations.

Training provision: statistics

Statistics for the eight centres shown periodically increasing enrolments for the years 1993-1995:
Institut 93  94 95
Vanves 72079 71741  74569
Lyon 52999 53913  57929
Grenoble 29923 25893  26369
Rouen 32040 34983  34841
Toulouse 42019 48625  55079
Lille 29983 29857  30891
Rennes 50359 54213  51774
Poitiers 35085 27572  23000
Total Général 344580  346891 354547 
See description.D

Training provision: finances

The 1996 budget was 638.244.745 FF.
The 1996 government grant was 169.213.990 FF.
The price of courses in the Guide des formations 1997/8 range from 125 Ecu to 300 Ecu in general.
The division of students by administrative centres

A bar diagram showing the figures stated in the table below

The most recent Cned statistics for the years 1995, 1996 and 1997 are given by student location. These statistics show that the Cned in 1997 maintains an impressive annual student enrolment of 378,371; as the European Union's largest provider of VET.

Enrolments at the CNED 1995-1997
1995
1996
1997
Paris
74.569
80.354
71.383
Lyon
57.929
65.081
64.443
Grenoble
26.369
26.345
28.590
Rouen
34.841
37.229
39.591
Toulouse
55.079
56.947
56.605
Lille
30.841
31.507
32.481
Rennes
51.774
57.901
59.809
Poitiers
23.000
25.831
26.376
Total
354,547
381,236
378,371
30,000 of the students were outside France in 176 countries in 1996.
Enrolments at the CNED from outside France 1995
1995 
Europe 6,304 
Asia 2,700 
Africa 6,513 
America 3,030 
Australia 190 
Dom Tom 7,604 
Military 81 
Total 26,422 

Course development

In general courses are developed and maintained by the full time staff of the CNED.

Student support services

In general the students are supported and helped by the full time staff of the Cned.

Employment

The CNED provides employment for 5,400 staff, 1,050 of these are in administration, technical, managerial and production and are part of the CNED budget, that means 30% of their salaries are paid from the government grant. There are 3,000 teaching staff engaged full-time in developing courses, and teaching courses already developed. Their salaries are paid 100% directly by the CNED. The remaining 1,400 staff do not enter into the Cned's accounts and are paid directly by the state.

Plans for the future

Two important initiatives are the Campus Electronique and the development of a university-level centre for the training of staff in professional skills for distance education.

The Campus Electronique is an open platform of training services on the Information Super Highway network making use of the technological facilities of FUTUROSCOPE. The training and information services of the Campus Electronique are accessible at distant locations via computer, telematics, and telephone networks, as well as by means of television.

These services are intended for those at home or from access points (public or private, individual or group), in France and abroad, wishing to educate themselves, to be informed about learning, to assess their learning skills levels, to make progress all their life, whether it is a question of initial, higher, or continuing vocational education. The Campus Electronique offers services bringing together teachers and users in a spirit of dialogue and mutual exchange.

Reception and information

The reception and information section of the Campus Electronique presents the services offered by partner organisations as well as their conditions of use. It provides access to their training catalogues and to database of the products and services offered, specifying levels, prerequisites and criteria of suitability for employment. This section also provides administrative follow-up for users.

Assessment and guidance

The assessment and guidance centre offers a service of self-assessment enabling people to judge their ability to follow a particular training course. It provides information on careers and advises on training possibilities. As part of the skills assessment centre, this section is supplemented by training advisers and teaching staff. They provide personalised advice and guidance services.

Telelearning

Satellite telelearning gives access to the courses broadcast by the partners of the Campus Electronique. The on-line services on training, follow-up and educational assistance respond to the user's needs and rate of individual progression.

Resource Centre

The users of the Campus Electronique at remote locations can purchase or consult a selection of training supports (books, CD-ROMS, computing equipment).

Users' Forum

This forum is a virtual meeting place for users of the Campus Electronique. Moreover, each user has a mailbox, educational mail service (handing in work, standard answers, dialogue with teaching staff). This section offers a personalised electronic newspaper, a list of work placements, and practical information (health, insurance, mutual insurance companies).

Forum of teaching staff

Each teacher has available electronic mail services and exchanges with users and other teaching staff. They benefit from an advertisement service (tutoring, marking, teaching programme, design).

Access to networks

The Campus Electronique offers assistance in navigating on the Internet, a selection of site addresses and preferential accesses to the services of the platforms associated with the Campus Electronique.
by Internet: http://www.campus-electronique.tm.fr
by telephone: 33 5 49 49 05 05
by Minitel: 36 15 Campus Electronique