ABSTRACT
In 1979, a third of the French working population held intermediate vocational qualifications compared to just under a quarter in Britain, while a smaller proportion of the French work-force held degrees. By 1988, the French position relative to Britain had changed considerably. In Britain, numbers holding general educational qualifications, particularly at lower level (General Certificate of Education O-Level, Certificate of Secondary Education, which since 1988 have been subsumed under the General Certificate of Secondary Education), had increased by 50 per cent, while stocks of intermediate vocational qualifications in the labour force showed hardly any increase. In France, over the same period, the percentage holding vocational qualifications increased substantially from a higher base (by one quarter), while the proportion holding general educational qualifications (without vocational qualifications) remained below that of vocational qualifications. In both countries, proportions holding degrees increased with the larger increase registered in Britain (Table 3.1). In Britain, a decade which witnessed the largest number of government training initiatives, both for young people and for adults, has so far shown considerably lower growth than France of stocks of vocational qualifications in the labour force. France, on the other hand, has progressed from a level (similar to Britain in the early 1970s) of having less than half the stock of vocational qualifications of Germany to being two-thirds of the way towards the German level in 1988; France, with 40 per cent at intermediate level (1988) lies roughly half-way between Britain (26 per cent) and Germany (64 per cent).1 (Unless otherwise stated, the term ‘Britain’ is used here for England, Scotland and Wales.)
These results require us to look carefully at differences between the two countries’ policies towards the training of young people-an important factor contributing to changes in stocks of qualifications in the labour force.
