This practice was confirmed by legislative provisions and regulations in 1991 after numerous experiments. It concerns the use of a new tool for managing careers and individual projects, which provides the opportunity for workers, whether employees or job-seekers, "to analyse their occupational skills and personal abilities as well as their talents and motivation with a view to defining an occupational project and, where necessary, a training project".

The practice involves the participation of private service providers (sub-contracting), which back up the labour administration.

The scheme studied below is referred to in both legal and general terms as "skills assessment".

This service is intended "to provide the opportunity for workers, whether employees or job-seekers, to analyse their occupational skills and personal abilities as well as their talents and motivation with a view to defining an occupational project and, where necessary, a training project". Although it is defined within a specific legal and regulatory context, this service can be implemented in various ways, the adjustment variable being the source of funding, depending on whether the skills assessment is carried out by an employee, a recent or long-term job-seeker, an unskilled young person under 26 years of age, or an executive employee who has been made redundant.

This scheme is the result of the convergence of two types of concern: that of the State, which, since 1986, has been seeking to develop a whole series of initiatives aiming to promote labour market fluidity and that of the social partners which, operating withing the negotiating bodies of the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Vocational Training, have sought to promote the legitimacy of these experiments in the eyes of the employer and trade union organisations.

This common concern focussed mainly on two specific subjects: vocational guidance consultancy and the recognition or validation of occupational experience. In view of the development of unemployment (a 68% increase in the number of registered unemployed in the period from 1976 to 1988, and an increase of 17% between 1984 and 1988), the National Employment Office (ANPE) devoted efforts from the middle of the 1980s onwards to developing its services for users, in particular by experimenting with assistance in the assessment of vocational skills. However, in view of the workload and the specialisation of the tasks involved, the Office called in external partners to set up and implement these new "services". The initiatives of the labour and vocational training administration in this context focussed initially on the creation of 15 pilot bodies known as Vocational and Personal Assessment Centres.

The mission of these Centres was to confirm the hypothesis of the need to optimise assessment and counselling tools and methods employed in guidance practices or the recognition of experience. From 1989 onwards the State took measures to extend the establishment of these centres throughout the country on the basis of 1 centre per department, under the new denomination of Inter-institutional Skills⁽¹⁾ Assessment Centres (CIBCs).

The negotiation of the inter-trade agreement of 3 July 1991 enabled the social partners to take over the results of the two phases of this experimentation. Since their role was not to express an opinion on the creation of operational structures but rather on the forms of eligibility of training expenditure, they incorporated the skills assessment into their agreement as a service to be financed in the same way as individual educational leave and chargeable to the company training scheme.

The State thus incorporated the terms of that agreement into the framework of the law of 31 December 1991, with only minor differences. Real negotiation on the substance enabled the partners in the tripartite system to agree on a common outline of methodology and ethics. This consensus was eventually reflected in the provisions contained in the Labour Code through a decree of the Council of State of 2 October 1992. That was when the scheme really developed in undertakings. The skills assessment is intended primarily for two main categories of users - salaried employees and job seekers - with a view to enabling them "to draw up a project which will bring vocational development and advancement".

The role of the main actors

The legislative basis for the skills assessment lays down voluntary access to a procedure of this nature as a fundamental principle. Not only is no obligation involved, but it is also covered by the confidentiality rule (Article 378 of the Penal Code). The promotion of the procedure depends essentially on the public authorities (the joint bodies having the possibility of launching any public relations campaign they may consider necessary and suitable). The advantage of the scheme lies in this flexibility, of which the user is, in the final analysis, the main beneficiary, for he can take the initiative of undergoing a skills analysis, choosing a service provider and, where necessary, a means of transferring the results of the assessment to a third party (employer, employment services or management or training institution, etc.).

Since the skills assessment scheme is integrated into Book IX of the Labour Code, which deals with "further training in the context of continuing education", it is a scheme governed by general law. It is thus subject to the same regulatory mechanisms as those of all continuing vocational training measures defined by Article L.900-2 of the Labour Code. Consequently, the General Delegation for Employment and Vocational Training (CGEFP) is the only body competent to carry out supervisory operations.

On the other hand, the implementation, piloting and running of the scheme are subject to various practical modalities which are related entirely to the target groups involved. There are three types of organisation which play a part: the State, the partners and the service providers.

a) The State

The State departments, including the DGEFP, are responsible for a posteriori monitoring and regulation of the activities of the joint bodies as well as for organising the services for job-seekers. The mechanism comprises:

an internal monitoring department, which carries out a posteriori monitoring of the reality of the services in the field and of the adherence to standards in the financing of those services;
the definition of quality standards and means of evaluating the bodies with a view to drawing up quality charters at the regional level.

The Regional Directorates for Employment and Vocational Training distribute the funds and mastermind quality policy. They are backed up by:

an internal (a posteriori) monitoring department;
a Regional Steering Committee on Skills Assessment composed of the main financiers and sponsors.

b) The partners

Joint bodies authorised to operate in the field of individual educational leave (OPACIFs) are responsible, inter alia, for monitoring the activities on the authority of the State.

c) The service providers

The Inter-institutional Skills Assessment Centres (CIBCs) are autonomous structures. There are 110 such centres and they are funded by many different sources, although the State plays an important role in this financing (almost 60% of the total turnover of the CIBCs through the purchase of assessment services for job-seekers).

The bodies providing services, which are certified by the OPACIFs. There are some 700 such bodies, which are private service providers operating on a free market according to the rules of supply and demand. The only rules imposed on these bodies are certain accounting rules.

However, since the services involved can derive from the skills assessment such as skills assessment leave and the training scheme, the State has chosen to confer a primary role to the joint structure in the OPACIFs. It is by definition these joint bodies which are authorised to draw up a list for each department of bodies providing services which can carry out skills assessments for employees.

In the case of job-seeking target groups (outside the public framework), the CIBCs are the only bodies authorised to receive job-seekers for free services. To do so they benefit from agreements which are awarded by the decentralised - regional - government labour, employment and vocational training units on the basis of precise specifications. The corresponding funds are listed annually in the Vocational Training and Social Advancement Fund Budget Act and are then decentralised for allocation at the regional level. And finally, since 1994 the funds intended for measures to provide guidance for young people under 26 years of age who have enrolled on a course leading to a preliminary qualification or a qualification have no longer been managed by the regional government departments but by the regional departments (decentralised communities). The budgets for these assessments and inspections are included in the regular operating budget.

In addition to the monitoring arrangements mentioned above, the State has vested itself with various means for evaluating the skills assessment scheme: annual statistical and financial monitoring of the activities of the bodies responsible for carrying out the skills assessments, identification of the financing of this type of service by undertakings, inspection missions of the Social Affairs Inspectorate General, and external audits.

As regards social partner involvement, the social partners are involved at practically every level of action. Like the public authorities, they are responsible for providing impetus, coordinating and evaluating the activities of the skills assessment scheme as a whole.

The joint bodies authorised to operate in the field of individual educational leave (OPACIFs) are central to the system for regulating the supply of skills assessments for employees. The CIBCs have tripartite management boards, and the State departments are responsible for a posteriori monitoring and regulation of the activities of the bodies providing services and for organising services for job-seekers.

Furthermore, the State has set up a working party within the Standing Committee of the National Council for Vocational Training, Social Advancement and Employment (tripartite body for negotiation on vocational training policy), assigning it the task of monitoring the development of the scheme. This group has a joint structure and is chaired by a State representative.

Management of the process

The skills assessment activity cannot be said to be strategically planned. However, as regards the State budget earmarked for this scheme it must be stated that the share of public funds that is allocated each year is structured and negotiated on the basis of an appraisal of the activities of year "n-2".

There are two sources of funding through which the skills assessment activities can develop: the State budget and private funds (individual educational leave and company training scheme).

The amounts allocated by the State are determined on the basis of criteria which are intended to be objective. In the case of funding in connection with individual educational leave, the joint bodies are the only bodies authorised to define the share of the funds collected which is to be reserved for the skills assessments. Undertakings are absolutely free to decide whether to finance these services for their employees or not.

The CIBCs receive their operating budget from the State; it is calculated according to the appraisal of year "n-1" (maintenance costs, costs incurred in the study and development of projects, and financing in respect of the number of skills assessments carried out). To these amounts are added other resources for measures commissioned by the Regional Councils, undertakings or other bodies sponsoring assessments.

The service providers finance their activities by selling their services. The overall turnover involved in these activities was of the order of 316 million francs in 1998.

Any private or semi-public body responsible for carrying out skills assessments is subject to the rules of supply and demand; it offers a service (technical facilities for providing the service, methods of realisation, price) on a market where there are numerous competitors (almost 1000 bodies in 1998). It is only the 110 CIBCs which, by virtue of their mission as a public service, have a "captive market" such as job-seekers from the National Employment Office, who enjoy special retribution conditions (see above).

As soon as the scheme was set up the labour administration departments devoted efforts to commissioning a series of studies, whose purpose was to define the standard profile of a "skills assessment consultant".

In the experimental stages this function was fulfilled by members of staff from the various institutions composing the CIBCs: professional Employment Office consultants, labour psychologists from the Adult Vocational Training Office (AFPA), continuing training consultants from the State education system.

Three types of reference system were defined as the result of this preliminary work: an occupation reference system, which is also referred to as the vocational activity reference system, various training reference systems, and a certification reference system for each university proposing its training course.

At the present time, each structure providing skills assessments enjoys complete freedom with regard to the persons it recruits.

However, the financiers greatly value an approach where emphasis is laid on team competence combining a variety of professional consultants. It is thus practically automatic for each body to have a labour psychologist.

Each service provider is responsible for managing its own personnel. If a body is independent it applies its own human resources management policy. If it is part of a larger structure - Skills Assessment Centres of the State education system or the AFPA - it is subject to the rules of general law governing the network to which it belongs, adhering to the management criteria imposed on the other CIBCs at the same time. In the latter case, the limited number of centres which are still part of large structures will soon have to be converted into independent bodies.

As the skills assessment scheme has gradually emerged, tools for assessing and guiding the persons concerned have developed (study of behaviour in specific situations, analysis of vocational and personal experience, multi-media tools, broadening of the person's vocational ideas, research methods and data-processing on working environments).

The decisions on the purchase of tools or on staff training are taken at two levels:

the Regional Directorates for Labour and Employment manage a budget which is reserved for furthering the quality of the network of service providers (specific training courses, assessment-related public relations measures, elaboration of tools for specific target groups);
furthermore, each Directorate of the Assessment Centre must guarantee that the collective competence of its team in the field of assessment, evaluation and guidance of persons is maintained.

Evaluation

In 1996 the State took the initiative of instituting a policy on skills assessment quality. The objective of this initiative was twofold:

to improve the harmonisation and coherence of practices;
to regulate supply at the regional level.

This initiative should be supported and developed in the years that lie ahead, for the effects of the assessment have hitherto only been evaluated in respect of the target groups and financing. Furthermore, the public budgets allocated to this scheme are modest compared to the needs of the target groups concerned in the context of current employment policy (TRACE - "Employment Access Route" - Programme for young people and a new departure for adults in the context of the National Employment Aid Programme - PNAE).

As regards the utilisation of this scheme, 105 000 persons benefited in 1998, and 80% of those beneficiaries were job-seekers.

The technical group responsible for monitoring the development of the skills assessment of the Standing Committee on Vocational Training assisted by representatives of institutions and structures representing the skills assessment actors carried out an evaluation of the implementation of employees' rights to skills assessment in 1997. That evaluation only concerns the employee clientele, i.e. 20% of the persons applying for skills assessment. In the case of these users it is considered that:

the scheme is not widely used;
the services are fragmented and marked by competition;
the profession is only beginning to get organised;
there are few measures promoting access to the scheme;
the financing of the scheme does not seem to present an obstacle.

The technical group makes a series of recommendations for clarifying the status of the scheme, improving the conditions for using it and deducing courses of action through which the development of the scheme can be turned to account.

On the other hand, various private bodies have been undertaking to monitor this activity for several years. The most recent initiative (October 1997) is that of the Chamber of Skills Assessment Centres concerning the "effects" of the skills assessment. The conclusions of this initiative (published in June 1998), which covered the period from 1991 to 1997, indicate that:

49% of the persons questioned rate the experience as very positive;
42% of the persons questioned rate the experience as fairly positive;
60% consider that the skills assessment promoted changes in their working life;
90% consider that the skills assessment was of benefit;
9% found a job (15% were unemployed);
60% changed jobs (this is not necessarily a direct result of the skills assessment).

Conclusion

The skills assessment scheme enlists the services of a large number of partners for the benefit of the users. This diversity is the guarantee of the perpetuation of the scheme, even if there is a risk that the services provided will be heterogeneous. It would be to the advantage of the scheme if it were integrated to a greater extent into the range of services which are currently being developed in the context of employment policy.