Good Practices in Labour Administration

Contract policy for development in the vocational training field:
Training Development Agreements (EDDF)
Contracts for Prospective Studies (CEP)

The case of France

The contract policy for developing the training of employees, which was introduced in 1984, is defined by Article L.951-5 of the Labour Code. Its objective is to promote action to anticipate skills favourable to employment and to the development of employees' qualifications.

This policy is based on the elaboration of contracts binding the State, the employer associations or inter-trade organisations - possibly also trade union organisations - and employers wishing to become involved in these measures.

There are two separate types of contract:

• Training Development Agreements (EDDFs), which are designed to promote and accompany companies' investments in training as an integral part of their strategy for economic development and adaptation to change. They enjoy State aid, which complements the employer contribution in the field of training with a view to the vocational development and qualification of employees. Sectoral or regional agreements define the priorities for action specific to the branch or area concerned;
• Contracts for Prospective Studies (CEP), which were introduced in 1988 and are designed to launch forward-looking employment, labour and vocational training measures within an occupational branch. A survey is carried out on a particular branch of activity taking its specific economic, technological, organisational and social characteristics as a basis with a view to determining the foreseeable trends with regard to jobs and occupations, defining the skills needed and orienting training policy. These contracts are also State-financed within the framework of an agreement concluded with one or several signatory union organisations.

This policy falls furthermore within the scope of a permanent dialogue with the social partners at the inter-trade, sectoral or local level on the strategies for developing skills and qualifications.

The contract policy is part of the history of continuing vocational training. Designed initially to correct the adverse effects of the legal obligation for employers to finance on-the-job training for their employees (particularly inequalities regarding access which were to the detriment of the least skilled workers), it soon became the focus of debate in forward-looking and preventive employment and skills planning (GPPEC).

This policy was actually justified from the outset by the will of the public authorities to move from a logic of obligation to one of incentive, since most employers see the compulsory contribution towards the financing of vocational training which was instigated by the 1971 Act as additional taxation rather than an incentive measure. The purpose of creating this scheme is to change the image of further training, which the "prospectivists" considered at the time to be the driving force behind company competitiveness. With the EDDFs the State thus undertakes to promote a strategic vision of access to continuing training.

Initially, the declared target was thus to accompany the introduction of new technologies with training. Contract policy consequently focussed on large undertakings which were leaders in the technology industries. However, in view of the development of industrial policy the labour administration reoriented its action towards employees with the least skills in all undertakings and sectors with a view to developing GPPEC measures. This shift, which came about in 1988, was to give rise to the second tool of contract policy, the CEP, which is designed to enable the State and the social partners to develop their ideas on employment and vocational training in a forward-looking vision of economic, technological and organisational change. The CEP is thus intended to integrate factors as complementary as those of the employment market and the facts established by observing the development of occupations or skills.

In parallel, the EDDFs took on a new role correcting the continuing training scheme with a view to improving social cohesion. The State thus defined priorities concerning the choice of branches of activity, giving precedence to those where tensions were stronger in the economic, technological and human resource field (the metal industry, the construction and public works sector, the agro-food industry, the textile sector, etc.).

The scheme is currently clearly oriented to sectors which are buoyant in the job-creation field on the one hand or those currently undergoing structuring as well as small and medium-sized undertakings (SMEs), and on the other hand to developing skills training for employees.

The general objectives of contract policy can be summarised as follows:

• to maintain and develop the principles on which State intervention is based, i.e. the analysis of needs, negotiation, the determination of common goals and measures to build up means;
• to target measures more specifically according to their exemplary nature, their impact, and the degree to which they can be transferred to SME/SMIs;
• to promote the validation of training measures instigated in the context of the schemes used and to develop methods for recognising or certifying the skills acquired;
• to improve articulation between the national level and the regional or department level regarding the objectives of the contracts and the conditions for concluding them (management, respect of priorities, etc.).

The role of the main actors

By virtue of its integration into Book IX of the Labour Code, contract policy as defined by Article L.951-5 is a measure which is subject to the same procedural and supervisory rules as any measure falling within the field of the company training scheme. The competent administrative authority in this field is the Ministry of Employment and Solidarity.

In the case of the EDDFs, the organisation and management of the agreements are subject to special details of implementation which are defined by Articles R.950-25 to R.950-32 of the Labour Code, whereas the CEP operating rules are defined by circular.

It should be noted that since one of the objectives of contract policy is to encourage social dialogue on continuing training, the implementation of that policy is only conceivable in a balanced institutional framework.

The national inter-trade agreement of 3 July 1991 thus reaffirmed the crucial role played by the social partners in the various branches of industry in the definition of the priorities and objectives of continuing vocational training and in the consultation of the National Joint Employment Committees (CNPEs) on the draft EDDF and CEP agreements.

The contract policy scheme is thus by definition a partnership scheme. Whether in the case of EDDFs or CEPs, the action involved is joint action, the purpose of which is to enable the social partners, undertakings and public services to anticipate change more effectively and to orient their policy and decisions accordingly.

The joint framework within which contract policy is implemented makes it possible to highlight the basis of a possible compromise between the interests of undertakings and those of employees. But it also facilitates the emergence of needs which have not been satisfied, whether they concern the vocational qualification of employees with the least skills or training in new skills for specific categories of employees.

It can be said in general that contract policy contributes considerably to the dynamism of social partner action, sometimes even inducing the social partners to reconsider existing collective agreements.

Implementation

A working party of the Standing Committee of the National Council for Vocational Training, Social Advancement and Employment chaired by a competent key figure participates in the definition of the priority guidelines for contract policy and issues an opinion on the EDDF and CEP projects.

The social partners are involved in the elaboration of the requirements for the prospective studies or the draft EDDF agreements in the context of the National Joint Committees on Employment.

Where necessary, the State offers prior technical aid to branches which request it.

More generally, the application dynamic of contract policy must be examined in the light of the principal current use of the two schemes.

a) The EDDFs

This intervention measure is implemented within the framework of the conclusion of agreements with the branches of industry at the national level, and the specific projects are implemented at the level of the region or area.

National framework agreements give precedence to the functions of providing general specifications, orientation, and monitoring and evaluating the measures to be taken in undertakings. Their objectives and content differ depending on the characteristics of the sectors concerned:

• in the case of sectors which are becoming involved in this type of measure for the first time, the primary aim is to promote the vocational qualification of employees and their employability in connection with the strategies for developing human resources and the development of the organisation of the undertakings concerned;
• in the case of sectors requesting the extension of a previous agreement, the conclusion of a new EDDF can provide an opportunity for further developing the initial measures and reorienting training practices to take account of the conclusions drawn from the evaluation of the agreements previously concluded; in the hypothesis that this opportunity is taken, the objectives of the new EDDF will be more ambitious and at the same time more streamlined; action will also be targeted more specifically, and particular importance will be attached to the exemplary aspect and transferability;
• where specific problems which have been clearly identified have to be dealt with but the persons concerned have already acquired a good level of training, the purpose is to accompany major changes in job content within the undertakings in question with long-term training courses. This latter category makes it possible to place emphasis on developing employment capacities, which, although not the sole objective of the EDDF, must be an underlying principle of the signing of the agreement.

The objectives of the programmes launched at the regional level are different:

• to reach targets which have not been reached through national planning, particularly in emergent sectors or those where structures are weak;
• to organise the grouping of undertakings;
• to strengthen consulting services and decentralised accompanying measures, particularly for SMEs.

Undertakings can thus conclude an EDDF:

• in the context of a sectoral project on which an agreement is concluded at the national or regional level;
• in the context of collective area projects concerning an employment area;
• in a bilateral context for firms which cannot be included in a sectoral or an area agreement.

The State subsidisation rate is between 30% and 40% of expenditure in respect of the measures eligible for the EDDF.

b) The CEPs

The CEP application dynamic is characterised by the declared will of the State to establish partnerships with the occupational sectors which, in most cases, have to be provided with methodological tools in order to promote genuine involvement in the definition of training and employment policies. The strategic choices of the public authorities mainly concern sectors which have few structures or where major changes are taking place.

Since it is important to vest the social partners in the branches of industry with a permanent tool for providing aid in the negotiation of the measures they are implementing in the employment and vocational training field, the General Delegation for Employment and Vocational Training (DGEFP) has encouraged the creation of occupation, employment and vocational training observatories.

The studies are conducted on the basis of a list of requirements which is drawn up jointly by the State and the social partners and specifies:

• the field covered by the CEP;
• a presentation of the branch of industry;
• a statistical study pinpointing employment and training;
• the issues at stake and the priorities of the sector;
• the main objectives of the CEP;
• the methods of investigation proposed to operators;
• the means mobilised by the sector;
• the schedule of activities;
• the steering committee.

The operators are selected jointly by the State and the branch after a call for tenders, and the work is co-financed by the State and the trades concerned.

Analysis of the impact of contract policy

Provision has been made for monitoring the measures carried out and the results obtained by mobilising the internal means of the trades on the one hand and by calling in independent external service providers on the other.

Explicit provision is made for "internal" evaluations of each EDDF in the list of specifications drawn up before the draft agreements or agreements are signed. They define the monitoring methods employed throughout the duration of the agreement and lead to the examination of the interim assessments carried out in the steering group context.

The external evaluations are systematically entrusted to public or private external operators specialising in consultancy or in the study and development of training projects. They are subject to a call for tenders under ordinary law, and their purpose is to analyse results regarding both quantity and quality.

Taken as a whole, the results for 1996 in terms of trainees and financing reveal that:

• of the 318 million French francs mobilised, 6 million were allocated to CEPs, 20 million to accompanying measures and expert evaluations, and 292 million to training measures for employees;
• the total State contribution for EDDFs amounted to 292 million French francs as against 727 million French francs payable by the undertakings, i.e. 28% of the operating costs incurred in the training measures carried out, and 14% if one includes pay;
• almost 200 000 trainees were trained in approximately 3700 undertakings, 66 % of whom were blue-collar and white-collar workers.

In 1999, the funds raised for CEPs and EDDFs within the framework of the Vocational Training and Social Advancement Fund amounted to 335 million French francs. The contract policy measures were co-financed in the context of the objectives of the European Social Fund (ESF) in the period from 1994 to 1999.

Conclusion

Evaluation of the measures carried out in the contract policy field reveals that:

• the CEPs favourably influence the ability of the social partners to take account of the connection between training and employment in collective bargaining; on the other hand, this scheme has little direct impact on company policy;
• the EDDFs have a multiplying effect on the development of training measures within an occupational branch and they trigger and accelerate measures in SMEs. The limits observed concern difficulties in reaching undertakings in emergent sectors and/or sectors where structures are weak, the correction of inequalities regarding access to training, and the implementation of measures providing genuine qualifications.

The guidelines and priorities underlying future measures in the field of contract policy take account of these observations. They have been laid down in the context of a series of exchanges with the social partners at the end of 1998 in connection with the project for reforming vocational training.

The priority objectives and the targeting of State intervention has thus been specified:

• to support the elaboration and implementation of training schemes which are articulated and coherent with the strategies for developing human resources, organising undertakings and introducing advanced technologies;
• to promote the implementation of measures for improving the level of occupational skills, developing skills and qualifications, in branches of activity and undertakings or for categories of employees whose level of involvement in vocational training is low.

In terms of branches of activity, the objective is to reach undertakings which have few structures as regards industrial relations and work organisation and whose development is based on the professionalisation of their activities. These various characteristics apply more specifically to service activities.

In terms of size, undertakings employing under 250 workers are targeted in particular, irrespective of the branch of activity; these undertakings are characterised by operating methods which are not conducive to the implementation of measures for developing human resources. Furthermore, specific adaptations of the intervention system are intended for collective approaches in the sectors or regions.

In terms of target group, the aim is to reach employees who are subject to various forms of insecurity in their occupational activity due to their qualifications, employment contract, age or working history.

The underlying concern in these guidelines is to give State intervention a real leverage effect in influencing company policy to promote access for employees to training and vocational qualification.