Quantitative and structural data on distance training in France
Patrick Chevalier
Eric Ecoutin

In 1997 ORAVEP carried out an investigation into distance training organisations in France. Results from over a hundred institutions are summarised in this analysis.

Long term quantitative evolution of the sector

Two series of data can be identified: the number of organisations which offer a distance training provision (formerly called 'correspondence teaching'), the number of enrolments.

Concerning the number of organisations, in 1968 300 schools for 'correspondence teaching' were registered in the Guide national de l'enseignement privé. A Centre Inffo study made a list in 1977 of 200 organisations delivering a training by correspondence and in 1993 the CIDJ listed 123 establishments delivering 'distance-training'.

The decrease in the number of organisations appears clearly now. Many factors of this evolution can be taken into account: we cite two of them; the impact of the Law of 1971; market concentration due to competition or to the evolution of demand.

Concerning the enrolments, the study of 'Centro Inffo' of 1977 assessed the number of persons registered at an organisation delivering 'training by correspondence courses' at 500.000 (with an error margin of 20%). The study in progress by ORAVEP in 1997 indicates 530.000 (with an error margin of 3%) as the number of registrations (more than the number of persons enrolled) at organisations delivering 'distance-training'.

The author of the 1977 study (Centre Inffo) concluded that 'the general impression …. is that teaching by correspondence is not decreasing', a cautious conclusion that doesn't want either to make the statement that this kind of teaching is progressing. The latest data available lead to the same conclusion: during the last decade, there has not been a 'large expansion' that the reports find during a longer historical period.

Structure of the sector

The structure of the distance-training sector is very asymmetrical. When we distinguish the public sector (CNED, other 'Education nationale', AFPA, CNPR-National centre of rural promotion), the semi-public sector and the private sector, we obtain the following results:
Public 84%
CNED 72%
Universities  8% 
Semi-public  6%
Private 10%
Percentages of enrolments (1996)
Thus it appears that the state sector exceeds considerably the other sectors, semi public- and private. This asymmetry is essentially due to the presence of the CNED: 381.000 enrolments in 1996. The CNED is internationally considered to be one of the biggest Distance Training organisations in the world.

The sector under state control is also composed of the AFPA (16.703 registrations), the CNPR (3.600), the CNAM. The establishments of higher education. (In total 38.000 enrolments going from less than 20 for certain universities to 4.500 for the University of Toulouse).

The sector of the private organisations has equally a very asymmetric structure of which the number of enrolments range from a very reduced level, as concerns some organisations to some with more the 5.000 registrations every year (Cours Legendre, Revue d'études, etc.).

The semi-public organisations present the same asymmetric structure: the INTEC (Accounting techniques - 29.000 enrolments) is considerably ahead of the other establishments which do not even reach a thousand.

The main Distance Training organisations in France (more than 10.000 annual enrolments) are:
CNED 381.000 
INTEC 30.000 
AFPA 16.700 
Cours Legendre  13.000 
Revue d'études  10.000 
Enrolments in 1996

Recent developments

Several events in 1996 need to be noted as they lead to the distinction between public on one hand and private and semi-public on the other hand.

The AFPA has doubled the number of its enrolments in one year; the number of enrolments of the ANPR has increased by 12.55%; after 3 years of a steady flow of the enrolments, the number of the ANED has increased by 7.5%; on the other hand the Centres of Distance University Teaching (CTEU, in total 22) continue with a steady number of enrolments.

As concerns the semi-public sector, the developments are contrasting: several traditional service providers of Distance Training have a lowering activity volume; but also new actors appear with sometimes an important enrolment volume, like the CFPB, the Training Centre of the banking profession.

The situations in the private sector are also very contrasting: we notice organisations with a drop in activity, others having a steady activity and those who have an increasing activity; new actors appear as well, especially in the spheres of language training or office automation training.

In conclusion, the public sector maintains globally an increasing activity when the other two sectors do not have a steady situation.

Use of Technologies

Video and audio (sound) technologies are being used by the Distance Training organisms in apprenticeship training. The training software doesn't take part of this. This is the same for big or small organisations. In some cases, the professional software are incorporated in apprenticeship documents.

Several initiatives concerning the use of the communication Networks in relation with training appear; they are known one by one: regional centres of the CNAM, CFPB, AFPA, CCI Pays de la Loire (cf. In particular 'Réseaux de télécommunication et formation, Ed. ORAVEP, 1996), etc.

Futhermore, 1997 has marked a first generalisation of the Internet services managed by the Distance Training bodies. Those services are first of all institutional services (catalogue presentation). As concerns the organisations and its market 1997 has also been the year where some significant uses of videoconferances systems have arisen.

In total, the number of apprentices concerned by the use of the networks remains limited, the functioning 'organisations' concern only a reduced number of learners: most of the time 30 or 40 but sometimes going even up to 500.