Certification : towards a new training paradigm?
In this new issue of Formation Emploi, we take a closer look at the rationale behind certification, which has become a fundamental aspect of the French training system. It highlights the legal ambivalence of certification, and reveals how the emphasis on certification is transforming the design of professional diplomas and titles. It also examines inter-university certifications in French-speaking Belgium, the impact of periods of certifying mobility abroad on training engineering, and the assessment practices of Ministry of Labor professional titles by company professionals.
Legal ambivalences of certification : training aspirated by consumer law ?
Pascal Caillaud
With the latest reforms to vocational training in 2014 and 2018, certification seems to have become one of the watchwords of the French training system. Certification refers either to a worker’s skills and knowledge (professional qualifications) or to a training provider’s ability to deliver quality training (quality certification). In addition to using the same word to refer to different subjects - workers or training activities - this use of a concept that was originally at the heart of commercial law practice refers to common legal characteristics designed to attest that both ‘certified’ people and ‘certified’ training courses possess certain qualities in which we can legitimately have confidence. Linked to the reform of access to training, in particular the Personal Training Account (CPF), which now covers 40 million people, we may well wonder whether these developments in certification are not contributing to the construction of a training market that has become a consumer item.
Genesis and institutionalisation of a new category, certification (1972/2018).
Josiane Paddeu, Patrick Veneau
An examination based on the activities of two commissions A socio-historical analysis of the activities of two national commissions, the Commission technique d’homologation (CTH) and the Commission nationale de la certification professionnelle (CNCP), enables us to trace the emergence and institutionalisation of the certification category over the period from 1972 to 2018. This process, linked to employment policies, has led to a new understanding of what constitutes a state-approved qualification or diploma : no longer training and its characteristics (duration, teaching methods, etc.), which prevailed until the early 1990s, but the validation/certification of skills listed in standard frameworks. However, this new meaning was not easily accepted.
The effects of a European socio-technical lifelong education and training network in French-speaking Belgium. The case of university certificates
Miguel Souto Lopez, Françoise de Viron, François Fecteau
Since 2014, there has been a strong increase of (inter-)university certificates in French-speaking Belgium. The certificates are a specific way of certifying continuing education programs in higher education. This article argues that the certificates are an effect produced by a European socio-technical network of lifelong learning and, at the same time, contribute to extend that network. It then analyzes the logic conveyed by certificates in the academic profession and shows in particular two new logics in the teaching mission : market and fame. Professional qualifications and European mobility : training and certification engineering This article presents a monograph on an ECVET (European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training) experiment. It draws on action research carried out between 2016 and 2018 with training managers who have integrated periods of certified mobility within apprentice training centres (CFA) into their training engineering. The aim here is to report on the engineering developed by these professionals to structure systems that enable validation and certification during mobility. This research also brings to light the principle of codependence between training engineering and certification engineering, with mobility situations highlighting both the limitations of the reference systems and the problematic nature, at this stage, of the ECVET process.
Professional qualifications and European mobility : training and certification engineering
Hervé Breton
This article presents a monograph on an ECVET (European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training) experiment. It draws on action research carried out between 2016 and 2018 with training managers who have integrated periods of certified mobility within apprentice training centres (CFA) into their training engineering. The aim here is to report on the engineering developed by these professionals to structure systems that enable validation and certification during mobility. This research also brings to light the principle of codependence between training engineering and certification engineering, with mobility situations highlighting both the limitations of the reference systems and the problematic nature, at this stage, of the ECVET process.
Does certifying skills in a training context make sense ? An examination based on the assessment practices of company professionals
Patrick Veneau
What about the assessment practices of the learning outcomes-based approach (CBA) linked to the certification category ? This question is examined on the basis of direct observation of the assessment practices made by company professionals to issue Ministry of Labour vocational qualifications. These professionals have a finalised conception of work that is compatible with the understanding of the skills category contained in the qualifications’ standard frameworks. Nevertheless, the singularity of school situated assessment compared to work situations in companies leads them to play down the ideas of performance and results. Consequently, when assessing candidates, professionals look at other aspects (technical understanding of the exercises required, approaches, etc.). In so doing, they (re)bring the question of knowledge to the fore.
Read the full article (fr.) : https://www.cairn.info/revue-formation-emploi-2023-3.htm
