Vocations and Learning (2008) 1:227–244
DOI 10.1007/s12186-008-9013-2
O R I G I N A L PA P E R
Competence-Based Vocational Education and Training
(VET): the Cases of England and France
in a European Perspective
Michaela Brockmann & Linda Clarke &
Philippe Méhaut & Christopher Winch
Received: 11 March 2008 / Accepted: 9 July 2008 /
Published online: 16 August 2008
# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract This paper examines the notion of ‘competence’ in the VET systems of
France and England. While both countries have developed ‘competence-based’
approaches, underlying the similar terminology are distinct meanings, rooted in the
countries’ institutional structures and labour processes. A key distinction is identified
between a knowledge-based model in France and a skills-based model in England.
Competence in the French sense is multi-dimensional and relies on the integration of
practical and theoretical knowledge, as well as personal and social qualities within a
broadly defined occupational field. By contrast, in England, competence refers to the
performance of fragmented and narrowly defined tasks, with minimal underpinning
knowledge. Thus, whereas ‘competence’ in the English VET system usually denotes
functional employability for what may be relatively low-skilled employment, in
France, it encapsulates the multi-dimensional development of the individual as a
citizen as well as an employee.
Keywords Vocational education and training . Competence-based VET .
Vocational qualifications . Experiential learning
Introduction
The creation of a common European labour market through establishing equivalence
between qualifications has been at the top of the European Union’s (EU) agenda and
M. Brockmann (*) : L. Clarke
University of Westminster, London, UK
e-mail: brockmm@wmin.ac.uk
P. Méhaut
LEST-UMR6123, Aix en Provence, France
C. Winch
King’s College, London, UK
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M. Brockmann et al.
forms part of the so-called Lisbon strategy of enhancing European competitiveness
and creating ‘more and better jobs’ (Lisbon European Council 2000). The European
Qualifications Framework (EQF) has been chief among policy instruments to
establish transparency and comparability of qualifications in order to improve the
mobility of labour and, in combination with the European Credit Transfer System for
Vocational Education and Training (ECVET), the transferability between vocational
education and training (VET) systems. Concerns have, however, been raised over the
possibility of establishing equivalence of qualifications, as this relies on a common
understanding of key concepts (cf. Brockmann et al. 2008a). The EU member
countries all represent distinct VET and labour market traditions, affording different
meanings to the principles and concepts underpinning VET. This is the case, even
where countries adopt seemingly similar systems, such as those based on
competences.
This paper examines the competence-based approaches in England1 and France. It
draws on the findings of a current study on differences in understandings of
qualifications and skills in four European countries: England, France, Germany and
the Netherlands2. We concentrate here on a detailed analysis of the French and
English systems as two contrasting models of VET: one based on a comprehensive
education system in which the state plays a pivotal role, and one which has come to
be employer-led. The analysis illustrates the divergent nature of the two systems,
underpinned by different values about what constitutes learning and vocational
preparation and embedded in the labour process in different ways. Previous work in
this area has distinguished between the multi-dimensional nature of the notion of
competence in some continental countries, including France, and the functionalist
system dominating in England (Delamare le Deist and Winterton 2005; Winterton et
al. 2005; Mulder et al. 2007). Examining some of the underlying principles of VET
as well as more recent reforms establishing competence-based systems, the present
paper will analyse the two approaches as they have developed over the past three
decades. A key distinction is identified between a knowledge-based model of
competence in France and a skills-based model in England. The paper raises
questions about the goal of policy instruments, such as the EQF, to achieve
equivalence of qualifications.
Recent Developments in VET Systems
Historically, the vocational route in England has had a lower social and educational
status than the higher education route to university entry qualification, held up as the
‘gold standard’ of education (Hayward et al. 2006). Pring has pointed to the false
dichotomy between (academic) general education and (practical) vocational
education, and the low value attached to the latter (Pring 2007). Indeed, school1
The paper focuses on the English VET system which, due to the devolution in education policy, is
distinct from the systems in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
2
The study ‘Cross-national equivalence of vocational qualifications and skills’ is funded by the Nuffield
Foundation. We would like to acknowledge the invaluable contribution made to this project by our
research partners, Dr. Anneke Westerhuis of CINOP, Netherlands, and Dr. Georg Hanf of BIBB, Germany.
Competence-based VET: cases of England and France
229
based VET routes, such as General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs), did
not prepare students for employment and contained no workplace element,
seemingly seeking parity of esteem with the academic route. Similarly, the new
Specialised Diplomas are expressly an educational, not a vocational education route.
Other qualifications obtained through Further Education colleges, such as those of
BTEC (Business and Technician Education Council), may be considered more
‘strongly vocational’, in the sense that they attempt to prepare young people for a
particular industry such as construction but lack the prestige of academic
qualifications, and have been criticised for not producing the skills demanded by
employers (Winch and Hyland 2007).
Alongside these considerations there has from the early 1980s been a long-standing
concern with the perceived low skills base in the UK compared with other major
Western economies, in particular due to its impact on productivity (e.g. DfES 2001).
Successive initiatives have sought to address the skills gap by increasing post-16
participation in education, one of the lowest participation rates in Europe. In 2001,
75% of 15–19 year olds were in education in the UK, compared with 87% in France
(Winch and Hyland 2007). The National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) system
introduced in 1986 underlies attempts to develop skills and has arguably perpetuated
the academic/vocational divide by focusing on practical skills with little underpinning
knowledge (Ertl 2000). The more recent Leitch Review of Skills reinforces this trend
by urging a significant increase in the level of skills, as measured by the number of
people gaining NVQs (particularly at Level 2) (Treasury 2006). The emphasis in this
Review is, however, on government initiatives such as Train to Gain and Skills
Academies, directed not at new entrants into VET but at up-grading the existing
workforce in discrete skills in response to immediate employer needs. The focus of
development is not a multi-dimensional capability as in the French system, but
functional skills for low-skilled sectors of the English economy. In the absence of a
robust government framework for initial VET to promote quality programmes, these
initiatives are potentially in conflict with the proposed raising of the compulsory
education and training leaving age to 18 from 2015 (House of Lords 2007).
In France, the strongly school-based, academic model of VET (under the social
and economic domination of the general education system) was reformed in the early
1980s in view of the changing organisation of work (Cedefop 2000; Troger 2004).
This involved the development of mandatory work-based elements (alternance)
(Monaco 1993), the introduction of the vocational baccalaureate (CampinosDubernet 1995), the revival of apprenticeships and the introduction of the notion
of ‘competence’. Importantly, the reforms retained the fundamental principles which
have traditionally underpinned education in France: a significant general and civic
element and a strongly theoretical basis. Measures designed to make VET more
practice-oriented have taken a very different approach from that adopted in the UK,
underpinned by different epistemological principles. First, French education can
be regarded as more holistic, directed at different aspects of the whole person: as
human beings, citizens, and producers (Méhaut 2007). Secondly, whilst the State’s
role has always been pivotal, the VET system has at the same time been embedded
within a firmly established tripartite system, with, on the whole, both social partners
(employers and trade unions) embracing the principle of social and labour market
mobility. Thus, VET reforms in the early 1980s and initiatives since then have
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sought to strengthen an individual’s ability to build a lifelong career in a changing
labour market. Thirdly, in the context of the traditional dominance of academic
education, the need for a workforce with more intermediate skills and a more solid
knowledge base has been recognised, prompting employers to make changes to
develop both the theoretical and practical knowledge of the workforce.
Competence-Based Approaches in France
The notion of ‘competence’, despite a wide-ranging literature devoted to it, only
provides what Maillard (2003) calls a ‘soft conceptual framework’. It entered the
public arena in the early 1970s, with the debate around recognition of the
‘competences’ of ‘unskilled’ and semi-skilled workers in traditional industries,
and increasingly formed the focus of political and scientific discourse concerning the
labour process and initial and continuing vocational training (Dupray et al. 2003).
Over the last three decades, the concept of competence has been developed by
different stakeholders in a variety of arenas, each time assuming distinct meanings.
Do Young Drop Outs and Unskilled Workers have Competences?
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the debate focused on two main issues. The first
was the rise in youth unemployment, particularly among those with the poorest
levels of education, and the failure of employment policy measures targeted at this
group. The result was a shift in the way young people were seen and in policy.
Under the influence of Bertrand Schwartz (1981), in particular his pioneering work
on adult education, the assumption that these young people were ‘unskilled’ was
called into question. The main argument was that they did have both knowledge and
competences, albeit not necessarily of the type recognised by the traditional
education system, and that it would be possible to develop teaching methods to
enable them to develop these and to re-access formal education or to find better
employment (Schwartz 1981). This argument is illustrative of the multi-dimensional
nature of the competence approach in France, taking account of personal and social
dimensions, acquired through life experience as well as through VET or work. The
measures were not aimed solely at functional employability, but at enhancing the
quality of jobs and people.
The second, broadly related and more or less contemporaneous, set of issues in
France in the late 1970s and early 1980s concerned the major difficulties
surrounding the redeployment of unskilled workers in major industries affected by
restructuring (particularly textiles and iron and steel). The term commonly used to
designate these workers was BNQ, standing for bas niveau de qualification, or
poorly-skilled in the French sense of the term, and implicitly stressing their low level
of education more generally, since many had left school at 14 before the schoolleaving age was raised. A major research and intervention programme was launched
with the aim of engaging BNQ workers and supporting them back into work, with
key assistance from (among others) the French Research Ministry and its newlycreated Employment, Technology and Labour Department. Emphasising the role of
experiential learning (both at and outside work), the programme was critical of the
Competence-based VET: cases of England and France
231
concept of BNQ and of the fact that competences had gone unrecognised or unused
in their previous jobs (Pailhous and Vergnaud 1989). A number of social actors, who
were important to later developments in the late 1990s, were behind this initiative,
which was again influenced by Bertrand Schwartz as well as by the French school of
‘professional didactics’ with its conceptual framework based on reflective
experience (understood as ‘learning in action’) and its relation to ‘expert’ knowledge
(Merri 2007; Barbier 1996). There was therefore an important shift away from the
traditional French emphasis on formal education towards recognising the workplace
as a site of learning and the role of other forms of knowledge, in particular tacit
knowledge.
Changes in Work Organisation and Competence-Based Human Resource
Management
The last area of development concerned companies and sectors. From the mid1980s, linked with concerns relating to BNQ workers, the notion of ‘reflective
action-taking’ in the ‘learning organisation’ developed. This is a type of
organisation that enables the competences and qualifications of its employees to
be maintained and developed. Just as new, criterion-based classification frameworks
had emerged, emphasising not only job-classification but also the individual
worker’s status, so the early 1990s saw the first sector-level agreements that
classified and managed ‘competences’ (Besuco-Bertin et al. 1998). The twin
impetus of research (Zarifian 1988, 1991) and organisational experimentation
(Amadieu and Cadin 1996) brought the concept of competences into sharp focus,
to be taken up by the main employers organisation, Medef, (Deauville 1998), and to
become a major policy focus until 2002.
The aim was to promote new competitive structures in companies on the basis of
the dynamic competence management of employees, moving away from the
traditional job classification system (and, to some extent, from the traditional VET
system) towards criteria to evaluate labour in the firm. While the term ‘competence’
is not new, and derives at least partly from the education system and from
pedagogical research, over the last few years, companies have been vigorously
debating ‘competence-based management’. This was presented as a shift from and/or
a break with the previous model based on collective agreements and ‘qualifications’
in the French sense. Competence-based management is a new trend in human
resource management that puts emphasis on the concrete competences in use in the
workplace, allowing more individualised management of the workplace, and on
the personal development (and obsolescence) of competences in terms of
individual career paths. In this view, competences are firm-specific and attached
to individual posts and work organisation. However, the defining categories are
usually described in terms of technical competences (savoir), operational
competences (savoir-faire) and behavioural competences (savoir-être). Part of the
French model of competence-based management thus relates to notions belonging to
the VET system and differs from the Anglo-American conception with its emphasis
on behavioural competences (Bouteiller and Gilbert 2005). Intense scientific and
political debates have taken place on the various concepts and definitions of
competences, as well as on the consequences for both the VET system and labour
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market regulations (Dupray et al. 2003). Here again, significant differences between
the English and French models of competence-based HRM have emerged (Méhaut
2004).
It is in the particular context of the French education system, in which abstract
knowledge has been valued above all else and work-based training has been
neglected, that we need to understand the value ascribed to individual competence.
In the past, almost exclusive attention was paid to explicit knowledge at the
expense of tacit forms of knowledge (Hoff 2004). Central to the French
understanding is the principle of competence development, which relies on the
interaction of theory (derived from vocational education) with experience (personal
and vocational). Hoff (2004) stresses the importance of learning processes through
which tacit knowledge is converted into (new) explicit knowledge to make it
effective. Rabardel and Duvenci-Langa (2002: 67) develop a conceptual framework
in which employees produce and improve their competences through a process of
‘constructive activity’, by building on external knowledge and integrating it with
experience. This process recalls Kerschensteiner’s notion of ‘productive work’,
according to which people construct knowledge by reflecting their experiences on
existing, imparted knowledge (Kerschensteiner 1968). Unlike the theory of social
learning put forward by Lave and Wenger (1991), learners do not rely solely on tacit
knowledge through imitation and socialisation, but actively relate to their existing
theoretical knowledge. Other French authors have referred to similar processes
producing knowledge mobilised for successful work performance, referred to as
savoir d’action (Barbier, cited in Pouget and Osborne 2004). In all these accounts,
tacit knowledge is transformed into explicit knowledge by way of reflective practice
(ibid; Eraut 1994).
Existing mechanisms for assessing competences are also informed by the
particular understanding of the term, Pouget and Osborne (2004) illustrate vividly
how competences in France are ‘validated’ rather than ‘assessed’. The whole range
of resources that the employee brings to a post is validated, over and above what is
required and specified in a job description. Methods of validation include ways in
which employees see themselves in their post and assess the ways in which they
master particular work situations, as well as their potential for development.
Competence and Initial VET
In the early 1980s, the French model of vocational education came under attack from
a number of quarters. Not only was it extremely poorly regarded by families and the
social partners, but it was also seen as offering too many overspecialised
qualifications, insufficiently geared to the world of work and/or too closely linked
to micro-level skills requirements. Some employers argued for fewer qualifications
with a wider scope, although this view was by no means shared by all. There was
also discussion at this time of a ‘vocational baccalauréat’. Over the next few years
and particularly in the early 1990s, qualification design methodology came under
intense scrutiny (Bouix 1997; Maillard 2003, 2005), broadly reflecting a shift from
an ‘input’ to an ‘output/outcomes’ model. As the concept of qualification shifted
from a specific ‘occupation’ to a broader notion of activities within an occupational
field, so the aim became to reduce the number of qualifications and their level of
Competence-based VET: cases of England and France
233
specialisation. Qualifications were to be based on two reference frameworks, one
based on work content and job analysis (the activity framework, or référentiel
d’activité) and the other using this framework to produce a grid of competences that
is then used to evaluate individual students (the competence or certification
framework, or référentiel de compétence/référentiel de « certification »). In most
cases, three groups of competences are defined:
&
&
&
savoir—knowledge (the ability to understand technology);
savoir-faire—know-how (the ability to perform a task in a specific environment);
savoir etre (behaviour, attitudes…) such as the ability to communicate, analyse
and report and so on.
In principle, these steps are independent of the course content or curriculum,
which is defined at a later stage; in fact, as teachers and specialists are also involved,
it is often to some extent a compromise. The new procedure for accrediting prior
experiential learning has strengthened these two stages: all qualifications listed in the
national register must be open to validation through prior experiential learning and
so require a competence/certification grid, enabling learning to be evaluated
independently of how the competences were acquired.
Thus, the French qualification system has become, like the English one,
competence-based. However, the two approaches differ in crucial respects. The
French system was designed in response to requirements to develop more practiceoriented qualifications. Hence, the emphasis is on ‘competences’, that is on what
individuals need to be able to do in relation to particular aspects of the occupation,
rather than on formal course curricula and periods of time spent in education. This is
important, as it severs the link between a particular qualification and formal
education and means that qualification awards now recognise a variety of routes,
which can include formal education or experiential learning. It is nevertheless
generally the case that qualifications in initial VET are linked to formal learning.
Thus, whereas NVQs in England were specifically designed to widen access to
qualifications through the accreditation of skills acquired on-the-job, competences in
France, while concerned with workplace practice, are still linked to comprehensive
initial VET programmes. In terms of competence certification, Brucy (2006) stresses
the historic importance of the ‘unitary’ concept of school-leaving qualifications in
France, as being both ‘comprehensive and methodological’ and of long-term value
for employment and for citizens. The national education system has an important
dual role, both as producer of qualifications and generator of practices in
accreditation design.
Nevertheless, the general background to certification is considerably more
varied than is generally suggested and the initial goal to reduce the number of
qualifications has not been achieved: a number of public and private sector bodies
is involved; there is a wide range of titles, diplomas, and certificates (Rose 2006);
and very large numbers of different specialisms are catered for. In late 2006 more
than 4,000 different awards were registered with France’s national award
framework. If the number of qualifications has been effectively reduced at the first
level of initial VET, it has increased at the second level (due to the baccalaureat
professionel) and is now sharply increasing in higher education, with the trend
towards ‘professionalisation’.
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Competences and CVET
The trend towards a competence-based system is also evident in the continuing
VET (CVET) system and its qualifications. The first important change is the
development of accreditation of prior learning (validation des acquis de
l’expérience—VAE). Unlike many countries, a decision was made to open existing
qualifications to VAE, rather than to develop specific new qualifications. One of
the consequences is that qualification files are the same and the broad concept of
competence also applies to the VAE route (Lecourt and Méhaut 2007). A second
change is that the competence model formed a major part of the 2003 inter-sectoral
agreement signed by all the social partners on lifelong learning and is, to an extent,
now embedded in French companies. Here again, competences are defined rather
broadly and as a major issue for the individual’s career and ‘dévelopement
professionnel’. Last but not least, since the beginning of the 1990s the social
partners are in some sectors developing their own system of qualifications, the
certificats de qualification professionnelle (CQPs), outside the traditional system.
These qualifications, focused on young newcomers on the labour market as well as
on employees in a lifelong learning perspective, can be seen as equivalent to the
English NVQ system, with two main differences: they must be based on a common
agreement between employers and unions; and, even if they are outside the stateled qualification system, many follow the same model, focusing on an occupation
with, for some, the same broad concept of competences (even if the ‘civic aspect’
is not included), as evident from an analysis of the qualification files (Veneau
et al. 1999).
Key Features of the French Model
The ‘French model’ differs from the English in that it is directed at whole groups of
people rather than individuals and is based on a different concept of the relationship
between the individual and the company (that is, a collection of individually
contracted workers versus a productive ‘community’) (Méhaut 2004). Trade unions
in France have much greater involvement in the development of competence
frameworks than is the case in England. Overall, the key characteristics of the
French competence-based system are:
First, the French system has preserved a comprehensive concept of ‘occupation’,
based on a broad range of activities. This concept is supported by employers (or
representatives of major companies), who place great emphasis on VET not just for a
particular occupation but in view of potential changes in the knowledge and skills
required through technological advances (as evident, for example, in statements by
the metal and mining employers’ organisation, UIMM, and by Medef (Labruyère
and Teissier 2006)). French VET has retained the holistic principle of the traditional
education system (Méhaut 2007; Brockmann 2007) and is oriented towards students
as persons and citizens, as well as employees. In the context of a changing labour
market, the importance of providing a knowledge base that enables occupational
flexibility is vital for the social mobility of the individual and for enabling innovative
practice. Thus, ‘competence’ in French VET refers to a broad occupational field,
underpinned by theoretical knowledge, general education as well as social and
Competence-based VET: cases of England and France
235
personal abilities, such as autonomous decision-making, deemed crucial for
functional flexibility and based on innovative technology rather than existing
practice.
Secondly, there is a systematic relationship between the référentiel d’activités and
the référentiel de certification, with the former generally describing ‘occupations’
and the latter the competences necessary to perform them and how these are to be
assessed, regardless of the way they have been acquired (through VET, experiential
learning or in any other way). There is therefore in France, as in England, a division
between VET and certification, albeit with four major distinctions between the two
systems. First, the description of competences in France is less detailed than in the
NVQ system (Bessy 2000). Second, the competences associated with occupational
profiles are integrative rather than cumulative, reflecting the integration of
knowledge into practice within an occupational context. Third, given that the
occupation is broad and that formal qualifications have a dual value (Méhaut 1997),
the principle in France is one of optimisation (Möbus and Verdier 1997) rather than
of minimum standards. As most qualifications are organised by levels, and are
supposed not only to have value on the labour market but also to open the door to
further studies and higher qualifications inside the VET system, the narrowest set of
competences strictly necessary for access to the labour market is not taken as the
sole reference for their development. Fourth, and most fundamentally, there is no
real division between standard design, VET, and certification delivery. To a certain
extent, the French system sets up its own evaluation systems for its own products,
distancing itself from the market environment, as defined by Hanke and Soskice
(1997), and drawing no clear distinction between input and output. As a result it is
frequently problematic to move from target- to competence-based statements
(Maillard 2003) and there is a much less clear-cut division between VET and
certification than is found in England. The fact that the ‘project manager’ and the
‘owner’ are the same, means that the French system both articulates and manages an
on-going tension between the three dimensions: target activity; competences; and
VET. And this tension gives rise to wide divergences between qualifications as far
as the weight of the different actors is concerned, with standards evolving all the
time.
To summarise, the distinct characteristics of the French competence model are:
&
&
&
&
&
The notion of ‘competence’ is conceptualised in terms of ‘capacity’ in relation
to a broad occupational field rather than in terms of performance of particular
skills
The description of competences is fairly general and is rarely defined in terms of
precise and discrete tasks.
Individual competences are related to each other and are difficult to dissociate
from the overall occupational or job profile; they are integrative rather than
cumulative.
Competences are built up and cannot be merely deduced from the employment
context;
Competences can sometimes be expressed as dynamic processes, that is an
individual is not just capable of doing something at a given point but is also
capable of developing, learning and passing on knowledge.
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M. Brockmann et al.
The English System
In England, the introduction of the NVQ system in 1986 also claimed to represent a
move towards a competence-based model. However, it was very different from the
French approach. Aimed at widening access to qualifications, the system was
specifically designed to accredit skills acquired in the workplace, irrespective of any
formal learning. Competences specified in NVQs are not commonly tied to VET
programmes but rely on the assessment of performance. This marked a radical break
with the more holistic model of VET which remained linked to curricula. Indeed, it
meant a clear shift from a model of VET based on knowledge to a system of
‘training’ oriented towards the production of skills that required little or no
underpinning knowledge. While NVQs exist alongside structured VET programmes,
such as BTEC National Diplomas, the former have come to dominate work-based
training, often at the expense of knowledge-based elements.
Functional and Behavioural Competences
The competence-based approach associated with the NVQ system can be described
as ‘functionalist–behaviourist’ (Delamare le Deist and Winterton 2005; Winterton et
al. 2005). Being strongly demand-led, competences are derived from an analysis of
job functions, which are mapped out for an entire occupational field (Ertl 2000).
Individual functions are then combined into elements of competence (with
associated performance criteria), representing tasks deemed necessary for certain
job roles, which in turn are grouped into units of competence to make up
particular NVQs. Not being linked to curricula, NVQs rely on the assessment of
students’ performance of prescribed tasks—the elements of competence of the
NVQ. Thus, rather than representing a qualification following a recognised VET
programme, NVQs constitute the certification of ‘competences’, which can be—
and often are—acquired through work experience, as well as through VET
courses. Typically, theoretical knowledge is not assessed separately, but, where it
is thought to be relevant, is assumed to be reflected in the successful performance
of the task.
The assessment of competences depends therefore on their performance in the
workplace—and hence by implication on the contractual relationship with an
employer (Clarke and Herrmann 2007). However, it is the particular onedimensional nature of ‘competences’ as narrowly conceived ‘skills’, their fragmented nature and lack of underpinning knowledge which marks the major
difference with the French competence model. The NVQ system does not entail
the notion of competence development or capability, but instead refers to the
performance of narrow sets of skills prescribed by employers. It neither incorporates
the production of innovative knowledge nor provides for lifelong careers and
individual social and occupational mobility. Instead,‘ lifelong learning’, like the
notion of skills, has a functional purpose. Being strongly demand-led, based on
functional analysis of the existing workplace, NVQs tend to reproduce traditional
skills and thus limit the scope for developing and using innovative knowledge. As
pointed out by Ertl (2000), because of the unitisation of skills and knowledge,
there is not the theoretical knowledge base essential for a workforce to deal with
Competence-based VET: cases of England and France
237
economic change. Biemans et al. (2004: 527) have described the English competence
model as:
[a] rigid backward mapping approach, in which the state of the art on the shop
floor is the untouchable starting point for the definition of occupational
competencies, leading to routinised job descriptions, in which the proactive and
reflective worker is left out.
Skills or Competences?
Rather than the integration of different types of knowledge, it is the Anglo-Saxon
notion of ‘skills’ which epitomises the NVQ system. Clarke (1999) traces the notion
back to the old craft-based system of apprenticeship, where an apprentice would be
expected to learn certain task-specific skills (usually of a physical nature), on the job,
with one particular employer, and with little theoretical underpinning. Thus, the
concept of skills is conceived as an individual attribute and as the mastery of a
narrow range of tasks (Clarke and Winch 2004, 2006). This contrasts with
qualifications in France, which incorporate a wide range of activities within a broad
occupational field, underpinned by theoretical knowledge. The production of skills
associated with the NVQ system appears suited to certain sectors of the economy
(Winch and Hyland 2007), which operate on the basis of a highly fragmented
division of labour. It has echoes of Adam Smith’s (1976) notion of workers
acquiring dexterity and becoming more efficient by carrying out the same routine
tasks over and over again.
The traditional craft apprenticeship model relied largely on tacit knowledge,
constituting a ‘community of practice’ as described by Lave and Wenger (1991), in
which apprentices evolve from newcomers to experts through a process of imitation
and socialisation into a recognised trade. However, the competence-based approach
threatens to undermine even this acquisition of minimal underpinning knowledge
(Green 1998). In contrast to the French model of competence, the role of theoretical
knowledge in the NVQ system has always been marginal. It is underpinned by a
belief (as expressed by Gilbert Jessup (1990), its principal inspirer) that knowledge
needed for the execution of tasks is acquired through experience in the workplace
(Boreham 2002). This echoes Oakeshott’s conception of technical knowledge,
according to which a rigid set of rules is applied in an unreflective way (Oakeshott
1962), or the Rylean conception of knowing how, where practice may be completely
disconnected from any formal or theoretical knowledge (Ryle 1949). The notion that
skills can be measured in terms of the practical performance of a task or job is at the
heart of the NVQ system.
In line with the dichotomy between academic and vocational education in
England, the VET system contains only the weakest notion of general education,
again designed to enhance functional employability. So-called ‘functional skills’,
now consisting of literacy, numeracy and IT, were introduced in response to
concerns about the poor functional abilities of school leavers. Again, Jessup’s (1990)
notion that general education is only necessary in as much as it underpins competent
performance in expected work tasks and can therefore be reduced to core skills is at
the heart of a functionalist, employer-led VET system. Contrasting the English
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system with the comprehensive civic and general education inherent in French VET,
Green has criticised functional (formerly ‘key’) skills as an ‘ineffective surrogate’ for
general education, culture, and active citizenship (1998: 23). Indeed, functional skills
serve as an interesting example of the functional approach in England, originally
introduced in an effort to reduce high youth unemployment in the late 1970s (Green
1998). In a similar context in France, the multi-dimensional competence approach
emerged, aimed at increasing the overall resources of young people, including social
and personal dimensions, as well as competences directly related to employment
(Farvaque 2002).
The NVQ system has been driven by a short-term view of skills development and
by a strong employer orientation, in the sense that NVQs are devised on the basis of
employer perceptions of current functions in the workplace. It is no coincidence that
the development of a competence- (or rather, skills-) based approach went hand in
hand with the abolition of the tripartite Industrial Training Board system, weak VET
provision and extensive deregulation of the labour market (Keep 2007). While
NVQs have never been accepted for the whole of the economy, their narrow
specialisms and outcomes-based approach appear suited to some employers in
certain sectors, perhaps reflecting an attempt to formalise, organise and recognise
functions of a hitherto casual or unorganised nature (Winch and Hyland 2007). In
other sectors, with long traditions of qualifications and training such as construction
and engineering, they may be attuned to previous, long-established training
programmes and curricula (Ryan et al. 2006). It has also been found that many
employers may provide training to their staff to support the acquisition of NVQs (Roe et
al. 2006). However, with these exceptions, the general tendency—also evident in other
European countries—in many sectors is for employers to withdraw from a
commitment to even basic training in what has been termed the ‘employers’ retreat’
(Keep 2002; Fuller and Unwin 2003; Steedman 1998). In the absence of compulsion,
recent government initiatives such as Train to Gain are symptomatic of a voluntarist
system, in which the government devises incentives for employers in an attempt to
persuade them to engage in training in the very narrow sense of that term. This
tendency has been strongly reinforced by the Leitch Report’s (HM Treasury 2006)
emphatic endorsement of Train to Gain as a principal avenue for the upgrading of
employee skills.
A Narrow VET and Apprenticeship System
Ultimately, the VET system in England is characterised by a lack of social
responsibility for providing a holistic education to young people, a responsibility
which has been traditionally embraced by the state and both social partners in
France. Research has shown the lack of interest towards including a greater
educational element in VET among large employers (Ryan et al. 2006). Rather than
fulfilling an entitlement to education through the acquisition of level 2 NVQs,
people may be trapped in the lower echelons of the labour market. While the
National Qualifications Framework integrates and establishes formal equivalence
between vocational and academic qualifications, this equivalence is questionable,
given the reduced theoretical content of the former, especially at lower levels. This
makes for serious difficulties in progression from, for instance, NVQ Level 3 to
Competence-based VET: cases of England and France
239
higher level qualifications such as Higher National Diplomas, from NVQ Levels 1 to
2 and from Levels 2 to 3, due to a lack of underpinning knowledge (Clarke 2007;
Steedman 1992, 1998). As a result, there is a lack of permeability between different
levels, as the low knowledge requirements inhibit progression between different
level NVQs and from vocational to academic routes (Clarke and Winch 2006).
Grugulis et al. (2004) refer to the polarisation of skills and cite the high
proportion of low-skilled jobs in the UK (27% required no qualifications in 2001),
together with a decline in autonomy and task discretion. Indeed, in this respect the
VET system seems to reflect the structure of the labour market in England. Some
sectors and occupations however clearly involve a greater theoretical knowledge
base, requiring for example higher education qualifications, though our research on
software engineering and nursing suggests that the competence approach underpinning these occupations in certain ways reflects the one dominating the NVQ system
(Brockmann et al. 2008b). Rather than constituting a multi-dimensional concept,
competences again have a rather narrow, outcomes-based meaning, oriented
towards particular requirements by employers, which tend to be met with taskspecific, in-house training. Also lacking is the notion of development of the person,
both as an employee and in the wider society.
Arguably, the NVQ system has served to underpin the employer-led and
employer-specific nature of VET, reflecting narrow specialisms at the expense of
a broader vocational education of young people. NVQs have been integrated with
and now dominate even traditional routes, such as the apprenticeship system. With
funding linked to the acquisition of NVQs, some apprenticeships have been watered
down substantially (Fuller and Unwin 2003; Steedman 1998). They are no longer
linked directly to a VET programme and in some cases are more akin to
work experience. The constituent elements of the apprenticeship - underpinning
knowledge (Technical Certificate), functional skills (key skills), and NVQs (workbased assessment) - have been criticised widely for lacking integration. Indeed, the
Technical Certificate itself has widely different requirements and has been dropped
by many sectors, supporting the argument that even the minimal acquisition of
underpinning knowledge is being eroded as the focus is on achieving performancebased outcomes. The term ‘Apprenticeship’ is now also applied to many level 2
qualifications, indeed it is at this level that expansion is taking place. However, level
2 Apprenticeships can embody very little underpinning knowledge and equip their
graduates for largely routine and restricted tasks. Apprenticeships are thus
symptomatic of the target-driven approach in England, whereby qualifications are
redefined, with their educational and training content watered down, in favour of
meeting targets, one reason for scepticism regarding current government plans to
radically increase the number of subsidised Apprenticeships as announced in the
Green Paper on raising the age of compulsory education (DfES 2007). Similarly, the
first indications are that ‘training’ (as opposed to VET) by Skills Academies,
originally hailed as a way of ‘engaging’ employers in provision, will once again
involve a functional imparting of narrow skills, prioritising the short term interests of
employers at the expense of the long term interests of employees. The overriding
concern too in the debate about redesigning the apprenticeship system is with
‘fitness for purpose’, that is with meeting employer needs, rather than providing
comprehensive and broadly-based VET to young people (Nuffield Review 2008).
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A Contrast to France
By contrast, the education of individuals in France has been paramount and has not
been eroded by VET reforms. The VET system is still largely college-based,
providing a substantial element of general and civic education, as well as a solid
theoretical knowledge base. Nevertheless, the volume and content of the different
elements of particular qualifications are based on agreement between the social
partners. The mandatory workplace element of VET was designed to serve the
holistic competence development of individuals, able to deal with fast changing
work environments and ensuring social and occupational mobility. This element is
thus integrated with the comprehensive VET model. While there has also been a
revival of the apprenticeship system, based on a contract with an employer, this,
similarly, includes significant elements of college-based education as well as
‘training’ in workshops.
Conclusions
The detailed analysis of the French and English competence-based models has
highlighted the divergent histories and traditions of VET. Underlying the two
systems are distinct ideas and beliefs about the value and purpose of vocational
education. The differences in meanings of the concept of competence, and the ways
in which competence-based approaches have been operationalised in initial and
continuing VET, raise important questions about the prospects for success of the
EQF.
In France, the main development in recent decades has been the shift towards
experiential learning and the recognition of the workplace as a site of learning. In a
system which has traditionally valued abstract academic knowledge above all else,
reforms have aimed at enhancing the practice relevance of VET. However, and in
contrast to England, the holistic nature of the French education system still underlies
the new approach. The focus has been on individual competence, based on the
integration of different forms of knowledge, as well as social and personal faculties.
As we have shown, this was not a unitary development. Moreover, tensions between
the various stakeholders are important. Different social actors in various policy
arenas have addressed issues of social inclusion and the mobility of individual
employees, as well as demands for new skills and knowledge posed within a
changing organisation of work. The process has culminated in a competence-based
qualifications framework, which recognises a variety of learning routes, underpinned
by a system in which all stakeholders—including employers and unions—embrace
social responsibility for the education and, ultimately, social mobility of individuals
in a changing labour market. Thus, competence development has aimed at producing
innovative knowledge and ensuring lifelong careers for employees.
This contrasts with the strongly employer-led development of functional skills in
England above all through the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) system,
which has been criticised for reinforcing the class system by impeding social
mobility (Stanton 2007). Rather than enabling the development of knowledge-based
competences leading to competence within a broad occupational field, the trend—at
Competence-based VET: cases of England and France
241
least in certain economic sectors—has been for ever narrower skills, not underpinned
by any substantial knowledge and trapping people in what may often be low skilled
employment. This raises serious questions about the role of education for young
people and the existence of an entitlement to a certain level of general and civic
education, issues currently addressed in the Nuffield Review of 14–19 education in
England and Wales (Hayward et al. 2006). The issue is particularly poignant in the
context of the proposed raising of the age of compulsory participation in education
to 18 by 2015 (DfES 2007). Whereas ‘competence’ in the English VET system
usually denotes functional employability for low-skilled employment, in France it
encapsulates the multi-dimensional development of the individual as a citizen as well
as an employee.
At the core of the difference between the French and the English understanding of
‘competence’ is that, in the French case’, it refers both to the individual and to the
development of collective labour whilst, in the English case, it may refer to an
individual attribute but is ultimately drawn from the nature of the job, task or activity
in hand. In the French notion, knowledge is integrated with personal, social and
technical competences. But, because of the fact that the reference point in the
English case is not labour but the output of labour, such integration remains
elusive; all that can be achieved are discrete, functional skills attached to the
existing tasks of the workplace. As a result, whilst the French VET system is able
to equip labour for new areas and for the changing organisation of work, the
English system is not geared to innovation but remains bound to traditional areas
of activity. In effect, the French system is able to integrate the curriculum as an
input with learning outputs and in so doing to develop labour potential. The
English system in contrast, equates competence with ‘skill’, severed from the
curriculum and defined only by outputs—by work as the output of the individual.
This does not mean however that, at a later stage of progression by the individual
through the labour market, opportunities will necessarily be more open in France
than in England, due to marked differences in the social status of general
education and VET as well as to employers’ policies.
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