On 9 October, the strategic analysis centre (Centre d’analyse stratégique – CAS) submitted the analysis paper Individualisation in employment policies: what are the effects of the cheques, accounts and contracts? This paper is the result of an international comparison of individualised schemes in employment policies and their respective effects. The political background of this paper is characterised by a roadmap given to the social partners on the theme of employment security and it is also linked to the openness of collective bargaining related to this topic. In its report Labour - employment within 20 years (2011), CAS proposed creation of a social individual account (for the portability of social rights).
This individualisation of employment policies is to be understood as an opportunity for persons to choose the services and/or providers who will issue services to them. The purpose is to give to each beneficiary the capacity to be the actor of their own course rather than a passive recipient of employment policies.
Comparative analysis of 13 individualised schemes in eight countries highlights their impacts and the conditions enabling effective individualisation practices. On the basis of this analysis, the paper identifies a typology of schemes according to degree of freedom left to the individual: the saving or insurance account (incentive or obligation to save on an account, as in Austria, the USA and Chile); the voucher (beneficiaries receive from the public authorities a fixed-rate or variable-rate endowment according to their profile, as in Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom); the contract (beneficiaries are free to choose their providers but only in the framework of a formal contract between the managing body of this scheme and the provider, as in the Netherlands and Australia).
This paper confirms the mission entrusted by the Minister for Vocational Training and Apprenticeship to the National Council for Lifelong Training (Conseil national de la formation professionnelle tout au long de la vie - CNFPTLV) for realisation of a study on the concept of individual training accounts. This task is consecutive to the numerous studies on use of existing training schemes as well as the means to make them more accessible to everyone and how to improve their portability. In his mission letter, the minister invited discussion on the concept of individual training accounts designed to increase people’s ability to take initiative on improving their skills. The thoughts of the CNFPTLV will clarify, by outlining the various possible scenarios, the purposes of this type of account, the modalities of its subscription, its articulation with other schemes, accompaniments to its use and different feasible kinds of managing it. This process of reflection will take the form of a report which will be finalised at the beginning of March 2013.