Un siècle de formation professionnelle en France : la parenthèse scolaire?

A specific feature of French educational system is school based vocational training. This kind of schooling, which started at the end of the 19tln century, is the result of cooperation between State and managers from the most advanced fields of industry and trade. So, State intervention was not one sided, and was oriented towards fulfilling expectations of industrial fields that had great strategic and commercial importance for the Country. Until the second World War, State maintained a degree of intervention, acceptable in a liberal economy setting, as an incentive for private companies to regulate training by themselves : it created a diploma, the "CAP", and an apprenticeship tax. Because of war, Vichy's government, Liberation and demographic decline, public intervention increased and schooling became more widespread. A "French model" of schooling diploma-centred, emerged with declared support of the most dynamic fields of industry and trade which later questioned it, and school based vocational training is now challenged by other forms of vocational skills acquisition. However 40 % of pupils of an age group are still trained at school.Brucy Guy, Troger Vincent. Un siècle de formation professionnelle en France : la parenthèse scolaire?. In: Revue française de pédagogie, volume 131, 2000. Les formations professionnelles entre l'Ecole et l'Entreprise. pp. 9-21