Strengthening professional learning and development of educational staff in France

The Commission supported the Ministry of National Education and Youth in France in its ongoing reforms of the professional learning and development of educational staff. It provided concrete recommendations on how to make professional development opportunities for different types of educational staff more accessible, relevant and of higher quality through the newly rolled-out regional schools for continuing training.

Context

The training offered to educational staff in France is deemed not to adequately meet their needs. From an international perspective, teacher professional development is also less developed than in other countries. To overcome these challenges, France has implemented a reform of the professional development of its educational staff, establishing new schools for continuing training at regional level since 2022. The aim is to have better trained educational staff who can adapt their professional practice to changes in society, thereby contributing to better outcomes for pupils. Therefore, the project contributes to the EU strategy for a European education area and the European Skills Agenda.

Support Delivered

An in-depth assessment of the current state of professional development for educational staff in France (teachers, school leaders, administrative staff, staff accompanying pupils with disabilities, etc) was carried out by the OECD in 2023, involving extensive stakeholder consultation at national and regional level, as well as benchmarking against international good practices. This assessment formed the basis for the development of a set of concrete and actionable recommendations for strengthening the professional development system, which were discussed with key stakeholders at various workshops. The final recommendations were presented at a closing event in Paris in June 2024, which featured remarks by the Ministry of Education, European Commission and OECD and a discussion with directors from the new regional schools for continuing training (“écoles académiques de formation continue”) and other key stakeholders. 

Result achieved

The Ministry was provided with an in-depth and evidence-based analysis on the state of implementation of professional learning and development of educational staff. The actionable recommendations provided in the project will contribute to developing and strengthening a culture of professional learning and development of all education staff at system level. The detailed guidance provided on how to better assess and tailor training to skill needs, improve monitoring and evaluation of training offered, and make professional development opportunities more visible will contribute to making the new regional schools more accessible and relevant.

In the long term, more staff should be trained and in a better way. The project is in particular expected to contribute to raising the confidence of teachers, as measured through national / international surveys (TALIS). 

More about the project

You can read the documents related to the project here: