Metropolitan France is divided into 22 regions and 95 departments. There are four overseas departments, four overseas territories and two territorial collectives.

1997 European Union documentation gives the population of France as 57,800,000.

The gross domestic product per head is 20,750 Ecu and the workforce is broken down thus: agriculture 6%, industry 30% and services 64%.

Population	57,800,000
GDP per head	20,750Ecu

The continuing vocational training system may be considered relatively autonomous and indeed competitive in relation to initial vocational training: different actors and rules, major role of companies (contrary to that which characterises initial training) with regard to financial planning and definition of policies; development of dual system training for young people who have completed initial training or as a substitute for it.

Lasonen et al (1996) provide:

Initiatives at national level aimed at bringing together the world of education and the world of work have a direct bearing on technology education in secondary school.

The reform of French upper secondary schools was implemented in September 1992. The basic principles of the reform are given in the framework law on education:

• educating the entire age group to at least the level of the Certificate of Vocational Aptitude (C.A.P.);

• 80 per cent of the entire age group to reach Baccalaureate level in five years;

• the Act relating to work, employment and vocational training: 'every young person must be given the opportunity to take up vocational training before he or she leaves the educational system.'

• the changes began with grade 10 in 1992. The Baccalaureate was reorganised in 1995. Two main objectives were clearly identified:

• taking into account the great diversity among pupils entering upper secondary education; and

• fighting against the strongly established hierarchy between the different baccalaureates (at the top of this hierarchy the C Baccalaureate - Mathematics - worked like a magnet on gifted pupils; being strongly selective it eclipsed the other routes, devaluing them in the process).

A fundamental activity for economic development

The social partners contribute to refining the system

Generally speaking, the national agreement precedes legislation, but legislation can also invite social partners to negotiate on a given issue.
D

The contribution of enterprises

Since 1991, small enterprises and self-employed are subject to a similar obligation.

Enterprises which choose to train their employees, manage such actions within the framework of an annual training plan. In principle, training is in the hands of the employer, but he must nevertheless consult representatives of the personnel (the employer is free to choose the type of training and designate which employees shall attend courses).

Moreover, training is considered as a professional obligation: an employee in principle cannot refuse it.

The role of training organisations: a competitive concentrated market

Despite the fact that Volume 2 of the Voctade final deliverables indicates that the demobilisation of troops in Australia and New Zealand after the Second World War led to the foundation of a number of large government distance training institutions on a model similar to the CNED, the CNED can be claimed to be the major example of the model and a unique European contribution to the development of distance education in the world.

There are, in addition, other major government-funded and para-public distance education providers in France: including the CNAM, AFPA, IOUTEC and CNPR bring the total of government provision of distance training in France to 439.711 in 1997. To this must be added private provision of early 50.000.

University provision is much less developed with the CTUS, founded in the 1960s showing a much slower development.

1968	5.500
1978	13.000
1988	24.000
1998	35.000

There is no open university.

Distance education and training in France has been studied in two major recent studies. The 1994 Oravep study Formations ouvertes et à distance: le situation en France is a highly competent 194 page analysis of all aspects of distance education in France. This was followed in 1997 by an equally competent 205 page study by Barbarant for the Conseil economique et social.

1. Government distance training provision

1.1 Public institutions

1.2 Para-public institutions

2. Proprietary distance training provision

2.1 Members of CHANED

2.2 Other private provision

3. FIED universities

Non-FIED universities

IUTS

4. There is no open university.

Meticulous research by the Oravep, balanced by evaluation by Distance Education International Ltd. leads to the listing of the 1997 providers with their main institutions and their 1997 enrolments as follows:

Government distance training provision

Proprietary distance training

Distance teaching university

Distance training at conventional universities

Among the strengths of this model are the government commitment to distance education and training at all levels, the professional skills of production staff available for courses at all levels, full-time distance education specialists who concentrate on the development of courses and teaching of students at a distance over a range of levels: children's schooling, high school graduation, technical and professional qualifications of all kinds, teacher training, university level courses and post-graduate courses.

The Cned system belongs to a grouping of distance training structures created in or after the second world war in Australia, France and New Zealand. This grouping of institutions, the Colleges of External Studies in each Australian State (many now remodelled), the Centre National de Télé-enseignement (now the Centre National d'Education à Distance) and the New Zealand Technical Correspondence Institute (now the New Zealand Open Polytechnic) shared a number of features:

• foundation in or after World War 2
• full time specialist staff for course development at all levels in their discipline
• full time specialist staff for student support services
• heavy investment in plant, printing machinery, audio studios, video studios
• capable of enrolling tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of students
• same production staff for courses at all levels
• multilevel provision at secondary, training, further, higher and university levels
• official government commitment to and provision of tax payers' moneys for the promotion and development of distance training.

In 1996 the Cned provides courses at all levels in all areas of distance training for the official competitive national French government qualifications for which trainees from face-to-face French colleges also compete. Examples are electronics, teacher education, sport and tourism industry, physical education, public service competitions, secretarial, accounting, nursing, biotechnology, Capes, basic education, industrial certificates, modern languages, Deug, agrégation.

In 1996 the CNED enrolled 381.236 students of whom 198 507 or 52.1% were at university level. This represents and increase of 7.5% over the previous year.

The distribution of the 354.452 enrolled in 1995 was:

Paris	74.569
Lyon	57.929
Grenoble	26.369
Rouen	34.841
Toulouse	55.079
Lille	30.841
Rennes	51.774
Poitiers	23.000

Thus the Cned consists of eight large distance systems each with an annual enrolment of between 23.000 and 75.000 students. In a similar way the enrolment can be studied in major groupings of courses, listed with the latest statistics for each grouping in 1995:

Public service examinations	116.804
University examinations	50.341
University courses	10.487
Technical courses	22.139
High school graduation	69.334
High school courses	34.327
Primary school courses	10.710
Languages and other courses	40.310
	354.452

The original mandate of the Cned to provide courses for students dislocated by war, has evolved into a comprehensive provision of distance education courses for adults at primary level, at secondary level, at all levels of technical and vocational and professional training, at college level and at university level. Courses for adults now account for 88% of the enrolment and there are special focuses on courses for prisoners, the disabled and women. At least 100.000 enrolments each year are at what would be, in many English-speaking countries, courses at university level.

For decades the Cned has taught globally and Cned 1995 statistics show 26.422 students in 174 countries divided thus:

§Europe	enrolments from 41 countries
§Asia	enrolments from 36 countries
§Africa	enrolments from 51 countries
§Americas	enrolments form 31 countries
§Oceania	enrolments from 5 countries
§Territories	enrolments from the 10 territories
§Military
	174 countries

The remarkable development of this institution to become the European Union's most important provider of Vocational Education and Training (VET) is shown by this table.

Year	Student enrolments
1949	War years
1945	1.413
1950	8.300
1955	30.000
1960	61.000
1965	109.000
1970	146.000
1975	180.000
1980	197.000
1985	225.000
1990	250.000
1991	289.896
1992	352.910
1993	344 549
1994	347 065
1995	354.452
1996	381.236
1997	378,371

One of the great values of distance training institutions to governments is that they are able to absorb increases in student enrolments without increases in buildings, classrooms and facilities, and to a lesser extent, staff. But the increase of 63.014 given for 1992 (22%) is not matched by any apparent increase in staffing.

AFPA

Its decision-making authorities group together the representatives of employers' associations, trade unions as well as public authorities.

In addition to its managing board, it consists of 22 regional headquarters and in 1992 there were 365 AFPA establishments in metropolitan France.

Its operation budget in 1991 was FF 4.461 million, 82.3% of which came from State subsidies, 3.8% from other types of subsidies and 13.7% from the provision of services (nearly half of such services being provided on account of training agreements with companies). Moreover, this association administrates the remuneration of its trainees (FF 906 million as of end 1991) and the subsidies granted to organisations that are recipients of the FNE (National Fund for Employment) (FF 2.241 million).

In 1991, AFPA employed 10.700 people, among them 600 industrial psychologists, 300 survey officers and 5.000 trainers. It provided training to 150.000 trainees, 130.000 of whom completed their training by the end of the year. 62% of these trainees were employment seekers, recipients of the Vocational Rehabilitation Allowance (AFR); 31% of them were employees and comparable categories benefiting from Individual Training Leaves (CIF); an 'others' category grouped together distance learnees and foreign trainees (6.5%).

The budget allocated to distance learning cannot be isolated from AFPA's global budget before an analytical accounting system is implemented. But the share of educational production is estimated at less than 2% of the total production. Distance education in the strict sense of the term, although it has been practised since 1959 currently concerns over 16.000 trainees per year and it mainly focuses on bringing students up to a level that it required prior to entering 'standard' training courses. The fact is that the status and the remuneration of trainees, whether job seekers or employees, strictly depend on the hours of actual presence on the training premises and therefore, resorting to distance education remains a stop-gap.

Since 1993, CNEFAD (Centre National d'Enseignment et de Formation à Distance) has been in charge of centralising from Colmar the functioning of distance education: computer processing of registrations, publishing and dispatching of administrative and pedagogical documents, development and maintenance of telematic servers, publishing of a catalogue listing training offers. CNEFAD is also in charge of developing methods. It designs, produces and distributes pedagogical products: in 1996, FF 5 million in funds provided by the DFP (Vocational Training Delegation) and CCI (Chambers of Commerce and Industry) were devoted to the creation of pedagogical supports.

AFPA's regional headquarters decide on the choice of distance education and on the use of CNEFAD products. The follow-up (sending corrected exercises, advice given on the phone or appointments with the teacher) is also ensured at the regional level. AFPA in Colmar has its own regional training activity (especially to prepare for a vocational training certificate, BTP, in mechanics, level IV and III). In Lyon Vénissieux, 'Le Tertiaire', a training unit created in 1973, focuses on lever V and IV. AFPA in Toulouse offers a level-3 training for clerk of works (in electricity).

Independently from CNEFAD, AFPA has provided the pedagogical design of an 'introduction to electronics' based on multiple resources, co-financed by the DFP, the Agence Câble and INA (National Audio-Visual Institute). 4 'electronic pedagogical kits', each one of them corresponding to a module, include video cassettes (produced by NA), models (printed circuits meant to be cabled) and written documents, this material can be used at home or at the work place.

Communication with the trainer is ensured individually by phone or Minitel. Group sessions are planned for the presentation and the starting of each module, for final evaluation and, in the meantime, for adjustments and complementary information

CNPR

• Distance education provided by two public institutions and a few registered private schools;
• 22 Centres of Vocational Training and Agricultural Advancement (CFPPA), which are currently operational. It is in these centres and other local public institution facilities that centres of aided self-training in agriculture or the farm-produce industry have been set up since 1988. 20 centres are already operational, 7 are in the process of being established and 13 are still only at the planning stage.

The education provided mainly focuses on preparation for technical degrees (like BEPA, BTA, BAC D', BTS) and addresses 3.000 registered students. This preparation, which is usually completed within 2 years, includes the dispatching of manuals complemented by homework, keys to exercises and three one-week-long group sessions per year. 1.000 registered students are taking a pre-training course without any group session. 700 other students prepare for the administration's competitive entrance examinations (mainly those organised by the National Forestry Commission (ONF) and the Ministry of Agriculture). Finally, it is also worth mentioning the individual distance training paths designed by the CNPR for learners seeking to extend their knowledge in a particular field or to prepare for a specific competitive entrance examination.

INTEC

The courses it provides are traditionally open without any restriction to any individual already having professional experience. They focus on sciences and technologies as well as on management and applied social sciences.

The CNAM also provides training to about 100.000 learners: 70.000 being trained outside business hours (one third in the Paris-CNAM and two thirds in its 52 associated regional centres) and 27.000 receiving initial training in its 22 institutes. Training is modular and the multiple paths that are possible by combining credit units lead to dozens and even hundreds of different degrees, from the second year to the sixth year university level.

Within the CNAM, INTEC (National Institute of Economic and Accounting Techniques) has specialised in distance, home and in-company learning since 1949.

For the 1992-1993 academic year, INTEC has 14.000 registered students (individuals), or 32.000 registrations (if one considers the number of credit units covered by individual registrations). The certificate and diploma modules that are delivered consist of credit units, without any limited period of validity, and they are equivalent to the various degrees in accounting and finance approved by the state (DPECF, DECFE, DESCF). INTEC also prepares for the administration's competitive entrance examinations, such as the Examination Validating Abilities as an Auditor; the chartered accountant diplomas. Its turnover amounted to FF 56 million in 1992. It employed 453 persons (32 civil servants, 11 permanent teachers, 410 contract teachers).

Lecture notes divided into modules and distributed in 8 or 9 series are at the students' disposal. Courses are usually supported by a textbook which serves as a basis for commenting difficult points and proposing exercises. The students' works are transmitted to the centre which returns them corrected and graded. In this case logistics are ensured by the CNED.

Such distance education is complemented in Paris with oral classes (70 to 80 hours per credit unit) and especially (in Paris and major French cities) with group sessions (about 25 hours per credit unit), which give students an opportunity to settle the difficult points they encountered. The regional centre in Saint-Etienne proposes students working towards a DEST in computer-integrated manufacturing, a series of video tapes focusing on part of their programme and complemented by classes and exercises.

INTEC has also finalised a paying telematic service, intended for those who have not registered in its classes. This service proposes multiple-choice questionnaires and a message service with the trainer.

Distance education also resorts to local FM radio stations in the Paris region: each year, on about 30 weekly programmes broadcast on the station Ici et Maintenant teachers answer questions asked by phone.

The activities of Télé-CNAM which is independent from INTEC, discontinued by the end of 1977. Today, the CNAM relies on the balance achieved between its national network and the development of regional networks to broadcast its training courses more effectively.

CHANED

This federation includes major private organisations like EDUCATEL (1950), Ecole Universelle (1907), Ecole Française de Comptabilité (1945), La Revue d'Etudes (preparation for the Army's competitive entrance examination) (1913). The majority of CHANAD's members have from 500 to 5.000 registered students.

Non-member organisations are small-size institutions belonging to corporations, chambers of commerce, etc.

Furthermore, some private education federations have created distance education commissions. Such is the case of SNEPL; Fédération Nationale de l'Enseignement Privé Laïque.

Courses include holiday homework, help in preparing for school or university entrance examinations, and initial or continuing vocational training.

In France, private organisations were the pioneers of distance learning. The HATTEMER course, named after the most senior of CHANED's members, was founded in 1877. For a long period their activities were not subject to any regulations. Such a gap in the law permitted some of them to indulge in improper practices (deceptive advertisement, leonine contracts, use of outdated courses, etc.) that were exposed in the GISSINGER report.

The law of July 12, 1971 places them under the supervision of the National Education Ministry (obligation to submit a declaration to the Education Office of the appropriate School District, pedagogical controls…). It concerns the creation and operation of private organisations providing distance education, as well as the advertising and doorstep selling performed by educational institutions. It aims at impeding such abuse. Complemented by two executive orders and one decree on December 22, 1972, this law imposes particularly strict requirements.

FIED

Since the creation of the first university radios, tele-education has progressively developed in universities and there are currently 22 structured tele-education centres that are members of the FIED (Féderation Interuniversitaire des Enseignments à Distance).

The Ministry of National Education considers tele-education centres to be common services of their parent university that are transversal to training and research units. They provide support for registrations, the dispatching of documents and the distance follow-up of learnees, but registrations, examinations and the diplomas delivered are those of the parent university; there is no difference in the end between students who resorted to tele-education and those who took attendance-based courses.

Nominated by the vice-chancellor of his/her parent university, the manager of a tele-education centre is a teacher-researcher who is both an educational officer and an administrator of the funds allocated to tele-education. But for all that, he/she is not relieved of his/her previous teaching occupation. The same applies to the teachers in his/her team who both provide, in a given discipline, direct and distance teaching, this additional work being paid as overtime hours.

A non-profit association, the FIED was created in 1987 in order to represent France in the EADTU and to ensure a nation-wide co-ordination of the universities' distance education activities. It centralises and updates information on the training courses offered but it neither develops programmes nor delivers diplomas.

Altogether the 22 structured tele-education centres have received about FF 26 million in funds allocated by the DGES. A large part of this budget is devoted to the payment of overtime hours: presently, the equivalent of 400 full-time positions, since only 92 teaching positions have been created for tele-education over the years. These funds cover about one third of the general operation budget of the centres and the rest is provided by students' contributions.

The budget of one of the most important centres, that of Paris, with 2.000 registered students, amounts to FF 5 million: i.e. 2.8 million for remuneration and FF 2.2 million for operation costs, FF 500.000 of which are allocated by the Minister.

Altogether, the 22 tele-education centres that are FIED members have 34.000 registered students. Arts and humanities are largely dominant in comparison with science (only 7.000 registered students).

100.000 courses and tutorial classes are distributed each year. They prepare for university degrees of the second year level (DEUG), of the third and fourth year level (Batchelor's degree and Master's degree) or for a Ph.D. (DEA). The registration conditions are the same as for traditional academic cycles.

More seldom, these courses can be meant for continuing training, for example refresher training for middle school teachers, organised at the request of the Ministry of National Education, or for vocational training, like preparing for the CAFB (librarian training certificate).

The media used is written material (80%) complemented by audio cassettes; for lack of means, the use of video tapes, the Minitel and CAT (computer-aided training) has not expanded beyond the experimental stage. It is, however, worth noting a few interesting experiments with telematics like those conducted by the University centre of Aix-Marseille, which uses telematics-based guidance teaching.

Initially, radio represented a display window of universities to the world of media and it reached an audience that exceeded the number of registered students. Today, the Ministry of National Education still subsidises nearly 700 hours of broadcasting per year on Radio France. These broadcasts are cultural programmes that don't give direct access to university degree courses. But the broadcasting conditions are getting increasingly unfavourable: badly situated sound range, on medium wave; time slots put off one hour later, limitation of the broadcasting period to 21 weeks per year. As for university-based educational television, we saw earlier that it completely disappeared after 1974.

1994

1995

1996

1997