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Vocational Training in France and Britain: Mechanical and Electrical Craftsmen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Hilary Steedman
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Extract

The rise of microcomputer technology in the last decade has introduced changes in the way tasks are carried out at both the technical and the organisational level in manufacturing industry, with consequential changes in the need for skills and training for both mechanical and electrical craftsmen. Both in Britain and in France the relevance of traditional and narrow concepts of skill (the craftsman highly skilled in one set of operations) is being questioned, and in both countries changes are taking place in the way young people are prepared for mechanical and electrical work.

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 126 , November 1988 , pp. 57 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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References

(1) Visits were made to three large employers of engineering craftsmen in each country: since our resources limited the number of visits, we chose large plants, which would have a wide experience of training and recruitment. The plants were matched in the two countries, as far as possible, for type of product and total number of employees. The sample is admittedly too small to be considered as ‘representative’, but provides valuable insights. In brief, the average employment of the plants visited was 1,500 in Britain and 900 in France. in both countries all the plants visited were unionised, with standard working agreements between employers and unions. Three branches of engineering were chosen: (a) heavy sheet metal work; (b) precision metal products for the car industry; (c) a processing plant using very heavy machinery. Further details relating to the sample are in a duplicated appendix, available on request from the author.

(2) Annuaire Statistique, 1980, chapter 3.05, table 1; Annuaire Statistique, 1987, table G.03-2, weighted averages of première transformation des métaux, machines et appareils mécaniques, construction électrique, construction automobile, construction navale et aéronautique; National Institute Economic Review, no.125, November 1988, Statistical Appendix, table 2.

(3) Percentage of those passing the CAP in engineering registered as studying in Apprenticeship Centres (CFA). Résultats aux Diplômes de l'Enseignement Technique (Session 1987), Ministère de l'Education Nationale, 1988.

(4) For this reason, it would be inappropriate to compare CAP courses with YTS in Britain where a placement must be found for all, regardless of school attainments. In fact, the French have a close equivalent to YTS, the Dispositif de formation des jeunes de 16-18 ans, established in 1982 and designed for young unemployed people with no recognised qualifications.

(5) V. Dundas-Grant, ‘Attainment at 16+: the French perspective’, Comparative Education, vol. 11, no.1, March 1975. In this study of the BEPC examinations it is the author's opinion that, ‘the young person who successfully completes the 3e classe stands up well in comparison with CSE/GCE candidates in England’.

(6) Much has been written (Le Monde, 4, 5, 6 mai 1982; Le Monde de l'Education, no. 83; La France en mai 1981: L'enseignement et le développement scientifique, pp.57-70, La Documentation Française, 1982) concerning the perceived low status of the ‘vocational’ stream in French education; recent changes within ‘vocational’ education, described in more detail below, have had as their goal greater parity with the two more prestigious ‘technical’ and ‘general’ streams.

(7) Over the period 1975-85, an average of only 600 full-time (OND) BTEC or equivalent awards were made in mechanical engineering each year compared with an average of some 6,000 part-time (ONC) awards.

(8) This is not just a simple matter of comparing EITB records with City and Guilds and BTEC since, we are informed, the respective computer systems are ‘incompatible’. The accepted view is that there is ‘substantial’ overlap between those gaining City and Guilds Part II or BTEC Level III, and those obtaining an EITB Craft Certificate (some 7,000 in 1986).

(9) The numbers of engineers qualifying at university degree level in the two countries are much smaller than those qualifying with intermediate qualifications, and cannot substantially affect the above conclusions. In the UK some 2,900 graduated in mechanical and related engineering fields in 1984 (taking mechanical, production, metallurgy and half of those in general or combined engineering subjects); adding CNAA degrees in similar subjects raises that to some 3,500. In France, those qualifying in the same group of subjects (mécanique, métallurgie, and half of pas de dominante) comes to the very similar total of 3,800 in 1984.

(10) Annuaire Statistique de la France, 1986, table C.01-4; Central Statistical Office Annual Abstract of Statistics 1987, CSO, table 8.1.

(11) White experts consulted are agreed that levels oftechnical knowledge and competence are similar in the two countries, there seems little doubt that in France a subsequent period of full-time work is necessary to bring the young CAP-holder to the production levels of an experienced worker. It is a remarkable tribute to the French education system that 3-6 months' shop floor experience is adequate for the purpose.

(12) For the first two years at LPs half the time is spent in workshop practice but pupils are now offered ‘tasters’ of different trades instead of concentrating on just one trade as previously. They then opt for a two-year follow-on specialised CAP or BEP at age 16. These new broader technical courses, in our view, ought to provide a model for what might be achieved here with more central purpose under TVEI 14-16.

(13) Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les Qualifications (CEREQ) (1987), Rénovation du niveau V de formation, Collection des Etudes no. 29, Paris; and Mission Education—Entreprises: Rapport et Recommendations, Mai 1985.

(14) That study examined changes necessitated by the introduction of CNC machinery in ten small and medium-sized engineering firms; one of the (unsurprising) conclusions was that, ‘all firms wish to employ increasingly highly-qualified workers on the shop floor’ (M. Maurice, F. Eyraud, A. D'lribarne, F. Rychener (1986), Des Entreprises en Mutation dans la Crise, Laboratoire d'Economie et de Sociologie du Travail (LEST) Aix-en-Provence, roneo, p.357.

(15) J-P. Hedeline, writing in the Bulletin d'Information des Commissions professionnelles consultatives, deuxième Semestre 1986, pp.6-8. He also noted that engineering employers had originally tried employing higher level technicians (BTS, DUT) for posts as shop floor technicians but found that they were over-qualified and did not perform well in the relevant areas.

(16) Based on our discussion with the leading French trade union confederation, CFDT.

(17) Mentioned to us by both teachers at Colleges of Further Education and employers. A visit to the YTS workshop run by a major engineering company confirmed that all their YTS trainees had achieved little at school. The standard aimed for at the end of YTS was that of the City and Guilds course in Communications Skills, Level 1.

(18) The figures published by City and Guilds of passes for light vehicles' and ‘heavy vehicles’ need to be reduced by some 30 per cent to allow for those candidates taking both sets of examinations (we are grateful to City and Guilds for the results of a special count taken in 1985-6 to estimate the degree of overlap).

(19) Department of Education and Science, Mathematics For Ages 5-16, August 1988, p.21.

(20) French industry appears to have had little difficulty in absorbing the far larger numbers trained. In 1980, 20-24 year olds with a CAP/BEP qualification in electrical work had less than half (4 per cent) the unemployment rate of all young men in this age group. Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les Qualifications (CEREQ), Dossier Formation et Emploi: Les emplois de l'électricité et de l'électronique, pp.84-6, Paris 1986; M. Barge and R. Salais, ‘The situation of young people on the labour market, 1973-78: the case of France’, in The Nature of Youth Unemployment: An Analysis for Policy-Makers, OECD, Paris 1984.

(21) This vocational Baccalaureat gives a qualification in ‘Maintenance of Automated Mechanical Systems’. In the LP we visited it was expected that some 50 per cent of all students obtaining the BEP certificate would spend a further two years at the Lycée Professionnel (vocational college) studying for the Vocational Baccalaureat.

(22) The BEP accounts for some 15,000 passes a year, and nearly half of all passes in electrical work in France at craft level. A practical example will illustrate the difference in levels: the French BEP paper on Electrotechnique requires students to calculate for a given three-branch electrical circuit: the current, phase difference, total current and the overall power-factor of the circuit. The nearest British example of this standard of question is to be found on a City and Guilds Course C paper where students are required to carry out similar calculations, but for only a two-branch circuit. Similar questions at Part II require candidates only to identify and state the function of components (triode, diode, resistance), but do not involve calculations. (Sources: Académies de Créteil, Paris, Versailles, BEP Electromé canicien, Epreuve Electrotechnique, Question 1, Session 1986; City and Guilds of London Institute, Electrical Installation Work Course C, Electrical Science, Question 2, June 1978; City and Guilds of London Institute, Electrical Installation Work Part II, second written paper, Question 8, December 1986.)