European and national policies on Vocational Education and Training (VET) need to be informed by sound and internationally comparable statistical evidence. The VET country statistical overviews are concise, descriptive and user friendly statistical reports. For each country, they quantify and compare key aspects of VET and lifelong learning. The selection is based on the indicators' policy relevance and their importance in achieving the Europe 2020 objectives.

VET indicators for France for the last available year
Index numbers (EU=100)

NB:   The index numbers are derived from data summarised in the table. Data in the table have been rounded to one or two decimal places. The calculation of index numbers is instead based on not rounded data.

France’s performance on a range of indicators selected to monitor progress in VET and lifelong learning across the European Union (EU) is summarised below. The chart compares the situation in France with that of the EU, based on the most recent data available (this differs by indicator). Data in the chart are presented as an index where the EU average equals 100. If the index for a selected indicator for France is 100, then its performance equals the EU average. If the index is 90, its performance is 90% of (or 10% below) the EU average. If the index is 200, France’s performance is twice (or 200%) the EU average. For some indicators, such as early leavers from education and training, a country is performing better if its score is below that of the EU average.

Data on which the index is calculated are presented in the table, which also shows developments over time. A technical definition of each indicator is provided in the annex.

Key points

Access, attractiveness and flexibility

The share of upper secondary students in vocational programmes in France (41.5%) is below the EU average of 47.3% (data for 2015). At upper secondary level, participation in combined work- and school-based vocational programmes is below the EU average (24.7% in France; 28.4% across the EU).

Data for 2016 reveal that the share of adults who participate in lifelong learning in France is higher (18.8%) than in the EU as whole (10.8%). The figure for France exceeds the average target (15%) set by the strategic framework Education and training 2020. The percentages of older, low-educated and unemployed adults participating in lifelong learning are all higher than the corresponding EU averages. The share of young VET students in further education and training is higher in France (39.4%) than in the EU as a whole (32.8%).

Skill development and labour market relevance

Data for 2014 on VET expenditure give relatively high scores for France. Public expenditure on IVET is 11 100 PPS units per student, compared to 8 400 PPS units for the EU as a whole. When these expenses are expressed as a percentage of GDP, VET expenditures for France (0.46%) are below the EU average (0.54%). In 2010, company total monetary expenditure on CVT courses was 1.6% of labour cost; this was 0.8% for the EU as a whole. The average number of foreign languages learned in IVET in France (1.3) is above the EU average (1.0). The percentage of upper secondary IVET graduates in STEM subjects (28.1%) is slightly below the EU average (30.8% in 2015). The share of enterprises which provide training to support innovation (51.7%) exceeded the EU average share in 2014 (44.8%).

The employment rate for IVET graduates (aged 20 to 34) at ISCED 3-4 (70.2%) is below the EU average (78.1%). Their employment rate is higher than that for graduates from general education by 3.6 percentage points (below the EU average premium of 5.7). The employment rate for IVET graduates is also 21.2 percentage points higher than the employment rate of graduates with lower-level qualifications (slightly below the EU average premium of 23.4). All these employment figures relate to 2016 and exclude young people in further education.

Overall transitions and labour market trends

In this section all data refer to 2016 unless otherwise stated.

The percentage of early leavers from education and training in France (8.8%) is lower than the EU average (10.7%). France is both below the Europe 2020 average target (10%), and its national target (9.5%). The percentage of 30 to 34 year-olds with tertiary-level education is relatively high (43.6%) and achieves the EU target (40%) but is below the country target (50%). The share of adults with lower levels of educational attainment (21.9%) is slightly below the EU average (23.0%). This share has decreased by 3.1 percentage points between 2013 and 2016.

The employment rate for 20 to 64 year-olds (70.0%) is close to the EU average (71.0%) as is the NEET rate for 18 to 24 year-olds (16.1% compared to 15.2%). Other labour market indicators for young people are less favourable in France than in the EU as a whole: the employment rate of recent graduates (71.7% against the EU average of 78.2%) and the unemployment rate for 20 to 34 year-olds (14.6% against the EU average of 11.8%). Lately, the employment rate of recent graduates has decreased (by 4.6 percentage points between 2013 and 2016). Similarly, the employment rate for 20 to 64 year-olds with lower level educational attainment has decreased (by 2.1 percentage points between 2014 and 2016).

Score on VET indicators in France and in the EU, 2010,
last available year and recent change

EU refers to EU-28, unless otherwise specified. Arrows ↗ or ↘ signal a positive or negative change. Arrow → indicates: no change.

(A) UOE back reconstruction of 2010 values based on ISCED 2011 not yet available. (B) AES 2011, used as proxy for 2010 baseline. (C) 2014 b flags in Eurostat online tables ignored on the basis of other relevant Eurostat metadata. (D) Forecast made in 2016. (E1) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for NL. (E2) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for EL, ES, NL, PL, RO. (E3) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for IT, NL. (E4) Based on 23 countries (missing: DK, EL, HR, IT, PT), with partial information for IE and FR. (E5) Based on 23 countries (missing: DK, EL, HR, IT, PT), with partial information for IE and FR. (E6) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for DK, EL, NL. (E7) Based on 25 countries (missing: HR, IT, UK), with partial information for BE, CZ, DK, DE, EE, EL, LU, NL, PL, SE. (E8) Based on 25 countries (missing: IE, FR, UK), with partial information for BE, EL, LU. (E9) Based on 26 countries (missing: IE, UK), with partial information for DK, DE. (E10) Based on 28 countries. (b) Break after 2010, therefore baseline data not included. (u) Eurostat: ‘low reliability’. (z) Eurostat: ‘not applicable’. (e) Eurostat: ‘estimated’.

Country-specific report details

Country report type
Keywords

Downloads

Statistical overview on VET - France - 2017 edition

EN 189.25 KB

Annex 1 – Short descriptions of indicators and additional notes

EN 74.35 KB

Annex 2 – Reading the Country statistical overviews

EN 39.5 KB

Annex 3 – 2017 Masterfile Country statistical overviews

EN 488.58 KB