Improving the quality and effectiveness of the Centres of Vocational Excellence – “campus des métiers” – in France

The Commission supported in 2021-2022 the French Ministry of Education to reform the implementation framework of the French Centres of Excellence (Campus des Métiers) to eventually increase their quality and effectiveness.

In February 2020 the French Ministry of Education launched the second wave of the campus des métiers et des qualifications flagship initiative with the aim to foster cooperation between VET centres and the business sector. While the previous initiative had led to improvements in stakeholders’ involvement and quality of the programmes, the 2020 call intends to be an opportunity to overcome the identified difficulties linked to the governance, financing, graduates monitoring and eventually improve the support framework, including the excellence labelling.

The Commission contributed to the joint reflection stirred by the Ministry of Education with the campus representatives and relevant stakeholders by providing an in-depth analysis of different campus models and the associated challenges, organising focus groups to discuss relevant international practices and providing concrete recommendations. The project included a piloting of the recommendations that led to a final proposal to reform the implementation framework of the campus des métiers model, including the excellence label.

Campuses were provided with a kit of ten practical tools to set their own governance, legal set-up or service offer. This kit is now widely used by campuses to choose or stabilise their model. The French authorities are now attentive to the fact that each campus deploys accordingly a structured service offer in regions. A ‘Guide for responding to calls for projects’ was also produced with the EU support (Technical support instrument nowadays). It has enabled campuses to apply more successfully to national calls, notably  under the investment plan ‘France 2030’.

This project contributed eventually to a more sustainable involvement of the business community in the campuses as well as an increased quality, labour market relevance and attractiveness of VET in France.