Intermeshing of schools and companies
More and more partnerships are being set up between schools and companies. They allow a permanent exchange of knowledge and expertise, and have become an essential part of an effective employment policy. Partnerships with companies enable apprentices to see how their skills fit into a real work environment, where the company can train them for a real job, i.e., one that responds to the economic reality of the workplace. These school-company arrangements are growing in number and are one of the best ways of giving an apprentice a professional ‘added value’. Some schools and training centres quickly realised this and have gone the whole way by actually integrating the school-company partnership into their curriculum.
Vocational schools and new training
The vocational schools are run and managed in specific ways, but share a constant need to adjust their teaching, through tailored training courses, to the ever-changing realities of their different sectors.
CFA Fishmongery Rungis
1, rue de La Rochelle
94569 Rungis
Tel: 01 46 86 4373
The CFA is a reference in the trade by its high rate of job placement. It trained 45 apprentices (fishmongery and sales) in 2005 - 2006 and has 52 apprentices in training (fishmongery) in 2006 - 2007.
First year: 14 apprenticeships and 20 vocational qualifications
Second year: 9 apprenticeships and 9 vocational qualifications
In September 2007, a new fishmongery apprenticeship (with fuller content and integrated computer skills) will be put in place, along with a nationally recognised state vocational baccalaureate in technical sales-advice-quality for all food products.
The courses preparing for the apprenticeship in special sales (food option and common products option) and the vocational qualification in sales have been discontinued for lack of applicants. Our activity has been refocused on fishmongery with the traditional fishmongery apprenticeship and food sector vocational qualification (fishmongery option) prepared in alternation with work experience for two years under contract. The storeman and order handling apprenticeship (with the AFT-IFTIM training organisation) is still open.
Professional School of Butchery, Paris and its region
(EPB)
37, boulevard Soult – 75012 Paris
Tel: 01 43 45 23 72
EPB receives young people of school age from age 14 under a CLIPA apprenticeship, or from 15 in a conventional pre-apprenticeship. They can then choose between two apprenticeship and vocational training streams, and eventually obtain a vocational qualification. The practical part of the final apprentice butchery examination is customer advice on purchasing a product for a particular recipe. The four options are combined into one, covering beef, veal, poultry and tripe products.
Paris School of Floristry
3, rue Hassard
75019 Paris
Tel: 01 53 38 60 60
The Paris School is France’s top training centre for floristry. It trains solely for state examinations, with the apprenticeship (in two years after school leaving age or in one year for more qualified students) and the official floristry qualification (apprenticeship contract, two additional years after the apprenticeship). The Paris School of Floristry also retrains adults (practical course of four weeks) and hosts international students. For the current year the total number enrolled at the school is 506 (345 apprentices and 161 vocational training) with 20% boys and 80% girls. The success rate (76% - 92%) and job placement rate (91.3% and 93%) are excellent. …
The Grégoire-Ferrandi Schools
28, rue de l’Abbé-Grégoire
75006 Paris
Tel: 01 49 54 28 00
The schools award different vocational qualifications from apprenticeships to degrees in cookery, table service, delicatessen, confectionery, bakery and fishmongery, and an additional ‘catering’ specialisation. They have 800 young people studying at the schools and alternately working in restaurants and elsewhere in the food sector; 670 are apprentices and 130 have vocational training contracts. The schools also deliver a professional qualification certificate (CQP) for head managers and operating assistants in large-scale catering approved by the joint commission of the hotel and catering trade.
The Higher School of Cookery offers training programmes that give qualifications registered by the trade as representing vocational attainment but which are not recognised state qualifications. An apprentice training course has also been set up with ENSIA (Graduate School for the Agrifood Industries) to give young agricultural engineering graduates culinary training (to create industrial food products and work alongside cooks and caterers). .
School of Gastronomy (CFA CEPROC)
19, rue Goubet
75019 Paris
Tel: 01 42 39 19 64
The 1100 students at the CFA are following courses at eight levels ranging from apprenticeships to undergraduate degrees. New training courses include the additional specialised delicatessen option (one year work-study alternation), and the caterer and reception organiser option (two years) under vocational training contract.
In addition, two students have successfully passed the Best French Apprentice (MEF) examinations: Léo Couturier in cookery (selected to contend for the Best European Apprentice award) and Mathieu Roger in delicatessen.
Jobs in food business through the CIFCA
14, rue des Fillettes
75018 Paris
Tel: 01 55 26 39 70
The All-sector Centre for Training in Food Business (CIFCA) is training 230 apprentices, all working in food business in the Île-de-France Region: levels up to vocation baccalaureate in commerce. Professional qualification certificates (CQPs) for sales and customer service (dairy produce, organic produce, fruit and vegetables, wine) represent 30 persons. In addition, a professional qualification certificate for managers has been set up for head managers in the food business (150 hours training) to help develop their companies.
(source: Education Nationale, Ceproc, Ecles Grégoire Ferrandi, CIDJ, APCM, CFA Poissonnerie Rungis, Semmaris)
Francis DURIEZ
Pro reviews
Claude Bellot
(President of AFFLEC)
«At the Association of Fruit and Vegetable, Grocery and Dairy Trades (AFFLEC) we attach great importance to the training of employees at our sales outlets. This effort represents more than half AFFLEC’s activity in personnel and financing. To make up the current labour shortage and replace retiring company managers, it is vital that we train tomorrow’s qualified professionals today. This is both a duty and a necessity. To this end we offer short initiation and advanced courses. In addition, we have to make our activities more appealing and less arduous. Everything is being done to recruit, train and develop activities such as courses on organic produce, on matching cheese and wine, on making up baskets of fruit, etc. We certify training organisations in the Île-de-France Region and beyond. Thus we are considering moving up from 140 CQPs in 2006 to 200 in 2007. We want to lay more emphasis on consumer service: with the development of the large retail outlets our companies have to advertise the quality of their products through the skills and efficiency of their personnel. The year 2007 will also see the launch of the ‘acquired experience recognition’ system (VAE) which is designed to enable experienced personnel without paper qualifications to gain access to higher training. The ‘individual right to training’ provision (DIF) is also being developed. The growth of our companies relies on two fundamentals: quality produce and competent personnel to advertise that quality».
Yannick Leboeuf
(Head of PF CONSEIL)
« Today we are seeing a trend towards increased professionalism. This is developing strongly in our sector through the influence of several factors, namely:
- More and more stringent European hygiene and food safety regulations that require personnel to be proficient in the relevant procedures. The role and position of the Quality expert is becoming increasingly important.
- The use by companies of new product traceability technology of the bar code type, requiring new skills and training for the operators involved.
These activities thus require more skills and more specialised training. Wholesale federations are increasingly sensitive to this trend and its impact on jobs, and are making renewed efforts to communicate with young people (CD ROMs, cartoons, etc.). The future of our activities will be assured by greater professionalism through the development of these new skills.».
Bruno Guesdon
(Head of Teaching at the Grégoire Ferrandi School)
« The School trains for various qualifications (apprenticeships, secondary qualifications and higher technical qualifications) in the catering and restaurant, delicatessen, confectionery, bakery and fishmongery trades. It trains 1500 young people and adults, including 650 in catering. The Graduate School of Catering also offers syllabuses set up twenty years ago that give degrees officially registered as vocational qualifications rather than as national graduate degrees. The aim is to produce high-level chefs who can start up, take on or take over catering businesses. A caterer and reception organiser option was offered in 1990, and a restaurant manager option was offered for serving staff in 2002.
The first two are validated and evaluated after two years post secondary school, and the last (30 students per year) after three years post secondary school. There is sure to be a demand for people with these qualifications. Many of the students come with a general baccalaureate and 1, 2 or 3 additional years of training. They spend a year gaining practical experience and do an apprenticeship. This is an option that is becoming popular.
We have 800 young people on apprenticeship-type contracts in the catering and food sector. Of these 670 are conventional apprentices and 130 are on vocational training contracts. We still issue vocational qualification certificates in mass catering for catering managers and operating assistants that are approved by the hotel and catering joint commission ».
Philippe Gombert
(President of the Association Patrimoine et Terroirs)
« Our Association was set up in 1990 when we realised that some students with high potential or who wanted to go further needed more specialised training than that currently on offer, which was designed for a broad spectrum. After some specific operations such as catering at the Barcelona Olympics, we developed close relations with schools, culminating in the creation of our mobile teaching unit in 1996. This facility is designed to extend and enrich the conventional training given in both state-run and private hotel and catering schools.
Two years ago with the help of trade partners we set up two vocational courses (final year of vocational baccalaureate in January-February and first vocational baccalaureate in May-June) at Rungis, each lasting six weeks. Our initial tour of France is designed to select young people for these courses, which are popular, as the participants acquire a broad set of skills and a more specialised professional approach. In addition, our partners have undertaken to offer all the participants suitable jobs once they have their baccalaureate. Our aim is to set up a qualification based on a 16-month training course for selected students under a vocational training contract of the apprenticeship type, while at the same time conserving our teaching methods and principles ».
Christian Petitcolas
(Inspector General, Ministry of Education)
« As a technical advisor for the Ministry of Education I am in charge of the design and review of the 52 professional qualifications in the hotel, catering and food sector. We have just put in place some new training qualifications with additional subjects (art of low-calorie cooking, organisation of receptions) and an apprenticeship in confectionary is planned. From apprenticeships to higher technical qualifications, 80 000 young people are enrolled in one of these qualifying courses, many of whom are not strongly motivated. However, I am optimistic that the quality of these training courses will enable these young people to succeed in their occupations. In addition, vocational degrees are being developed that add to the existing range offered at the Universities, such as a degree in hotel and catering management. In this context training is specifically oriented towards business operation, services and management. These changes in training provision are taking place under the auspices of a specific consultative commission to which professional operators submit projects for setting up or updating training courses (apprenticeships in confectionary and fishmongery are to start next academic year). A course is reviewed every ten years, which means we have to take a fairly long-term view. Today the concept of sustainable development is deeply integrated into our qualifications from apprenticeship onward. It is thus possible to obtain a qualification that fits a chosen occupation. This is the case for the professional qualification certificates, which are recognised in the trade. Jobs in the food sector are changing fast and the sector has a fine future … »
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