France: De l’Université à l’Emploi
The higher education system in France is very differentiated to duration and various types of programmes have been created to respond to specific labour market needs. Two explicit vocational training schemes in the university sector, the Higher Technicians’ Sections (STSsBTS) and Instituts Universitaires de Technologie (IUTs) account for more than two thirds of the higher vocational training in France. Both of these educational tracks give young people good prospects to obtain jobs after completion of their studies. However, the labour market prospects differ.
The BTS is more of a final diploma giving direct access to the labour market, whereas the IUT diploma is increasingly regarded as a qualification for further studies in the Higher Education system. Vocational programmes also exist on the university bachelor level, distinguishing professional and general degree programmes (i.e. ‘licence professionelle’ and ‘license generalle’). France has a very elaborated system to monitor the transition of graduates to work. The Centre d’études et de recherches sur les qualifications (CEREQ) is the central organisation to provide the State and regional departments with labour market information of all levels and types of programmes. These reports are an important source for HE policy on the national and regional level and increasingly by the AERES, the national evaluation agency for accrediting university programmes.
The higher education system in France is very differentiated to duration and various types of programmes have been created to respond to specific labour market needs. Two explicit vocational training schemes in the university sector, the Higher Technicians’ Sections (STSsBTS) and Instituts Universitaires de Technologie (IUTs) account for more than two thirds of the higher vocational training in France. Both of these educational tracks give young people good prospects to obtain jobs after completion of their studies. However, the labour market prospects differ.
The BTS is more of a final diploma giving direct access to the labour market, whereas the IUT diploma is increasingly regarded as a qualification for further studies in the Higher Education system. Vocational programmes also exist on the university bachelor level, distinguishing professional and general degree programmes (i.e. ‘licence professionelle’ and ‘license generalle’). France has a very elaborated system to monitor the transition of graduates to work. The Centre d’études et de recherches sur les qualifications (CEREQ) is the central organisation to provide the State and regional departments with labour market information of all levels and types of programmes. These reports are an important source for HE policy on the national and regional level and increasingly by the AERES, the national evaluation agency for accrediting university programmes.
An important document that set the tone for current HE policy is the report ‚De l’Université à l’Emploi‛ (2006) by the Commission du débat national Universite-Emploi (Hetzel committee). Central theme is the concern about the employability of students on all educational levels in the HE system. The large failure rates in certain subject areas and the large number of students in fields with very little employment opportunities are considered a waste of human potential and weakens the higher education system as a whole.
The committee advocates to enhance the professional dimension of university education though a closer connection between higher education in its broadest sense and the labour market and a strengthening of the relationships with the employment sector. At the same time the Committee stresses the equal opportunity as a national objective as well as supports the Lisbon agenda about the role of education and training for knowledge development and innovation. The Committee advocates to create at every university a service that follows the students, their studies and their transition to work (‚insertion professionnelle‛). The expertise of CEREQ is seen as very valuable to support universities to develop this service. Every university should publish a biannual report with figures on graduate employment.
Among the proposals of the committee to enhance graduate employability are:
Among the proposals of the committee to enhance graduate employability are:
- To integrate a professional dimension in all programmes - Bachelor, Master and Doctorate,
- To establish at each university a service for career counselling and support,
- To create a new role for an associate professor, assigned with a specific task to enhance the professionalization of university courses,
- To strengthen and validate stages/ internships that are mandatory in every programme, including the general Bachelor degree,
- To develop a regulatory framework for universities to engage with companies, contract regulations and the like.
In line with the Hetzel report, the French Government recently presented HE reforms in which graduate employability is one of the central themes, particularly regarding the Bachelor degree.
The reforms will reshape the Bachelor degrees in two respects. First, all Bachelor programmes should be made more flexible allowing students to change their subject field rather easily. By diversifying study courses, universities should take the interests of their students into account. Secondly, Bachelor programmes should provide students with knowledge and skills that enable students to find work that corresponds to their qualification level. As in Germany the Bachelor degree is increasingly seen as a labour market qualification.
On order to enhance this employability of Bachelor students, it will be mandatory for every Bachelor programme to offer students the opportunity to do an internship or to acquire work experience during their studies. In the French tradition the stage is seen as an important vehicle to facilitate entry into the workforce. Two other proposals are worth noting. First, partnerships with companies will be promoted to assess the need for initial and continuing training. Second, the objectives of Bachelor degree programmes are described in a range of skills which are deemed important by the government, including employment-related skills and competences. Benchmarks are anticipated to compare how well graduates from different universities are performing.
Scandinavian countries Scandinavian countries show a various picture when it comes to the tuning of supply and demand. The following is a short overview of the main issues.
Scandinavian countries Scandinavian countries show a various picture when it comes to the tuning of supply and demand. The following is a short overview of the main issues.
Denmark
In Denmark outcomes of labour market research and surveys of graduate employment are not used by the political authorities for funding, access regulation or ranking purposes. The Danish Association of Academics (AC) conducts employment surveys on a regular basis in order to demonstrate the need for certain groups of academics (with the risk that graduates from particular programmes may show higher unemployment rates). However, these surveys have not lead to direct government interventions except in a few cases such as medicine and dentistry where enrolments are based on prospective manpower needs.
Sweden
In the Swedish tradition there is a close monitoring of supply of and demand for HE graduates. Each year the National Agency for Higher Education publishes an assessment of the future balance in the labour market. Annual reports have been published since 2003 indicating the proportion of university graduates that have been successful on the labour market (12-18 months after graduation). Using large national registry data (presumably census data), it is possible to make detailed descriptions of labour market characteristics and to classify graduates in four groups, namely established in the labour market, insecure position (shorter periods of unemployment), weak position, and no work. This makes it possible to analyse differences between universities and different study programmes. Historical developments for various groups can also be analysed. In case of surplus or shortage of graduates the number of places offered in different programmes will be adapted. According to our Swedish expert, supply and demand are rather in balance and graduate unemployment is very low.
A number of universities reported that they sometimes decide whether or not to start a new study programme on the basis of labour market analyses. A current theme is the shortage of graduates from first-cycle programmes in engineering, teachers in primary education/ special education, and medical doctors. Policy initiatives to cope with this have been vey meagre, sometimes the number of study places have been increased. Sweden seems to replace the classical manpower planning by a system that relies more on individual student choices.
The National Agency publishes reports about educational programmes and degrees that offer the best employment prospects, although it is acknowledged that students not always choose ‘rationally’ in this respect. Finland In Finland official statistics on supply and demand are collected by the Ministry of Education, Statistics Finland and Foredata ltd. Regional councils produce studies on the labour market in their region. All this information is being used in regional policy networks in which with regional authorities, HE institutions, employers’ associations and big companies are participating. From time to time the Ministry has been pressed to extend HE provision to meet the growing demand from the labour market. For example, in the late 90s when the IT sector expanded, an initiative was taken to establish a private IT university.
This did not happen, but the effect was hat number of students in the IT sector financed by the Ministry increased massively. HE institutions negotiate individually with the Ministry on the total number of available study places. Institutions are allowed to increase the number of students in particular subjects if there is a great demand for this in some region, thereby reducing intake elsewhere in other subjects.
In the UAS sector (AMK) employers have to be involved in assessing such a demand. Joint initiatives with employers to start new programmes are less accepted given the demand factor on the national level. Currently shortages exist in the healthcare and construction sector, but this has not lead to initiatives from the Ministry to extend the number of study places. Professional associations play a role here (as in many other countries) to set limits on student growth in order to protect quality, status and future earnings in the respective professions.