ABSTRACT
The grands corps have traditionally dominated and continue to dominate, the administrative machinery of the French state. They are instrumental in fashioning and reforming that apparatus and play a significant role in the self management of the various professions within the public service. There has been a widespread and ongoing debate in many professions about the distinction between education and training. Education is portrayed as the instruction provided in schools and universities, whilst training is reserved for the programmes of specialised instruction in vocational schools and institutes. Recent decades have witnessed a number of developments which have, or should have, affected the content and delivery of training and development programmes for public servants. These are the appearance of information technology, the emergence of regional, supranational organisations new political governmental systems and new ideas about the role of the state, and concepts of public management.
