Choose one’s Professional Future and Sandwich Training in Higher Education: Experiences and Perspectives from CFA University in Corsica

In France,the field of lifelong learning has undergone many changes since 2014 according to the laws that have been promulgated[Law No.2014-288 of 5 March 2014 on vocational training,employment and social democracy https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=-JORFTEXT000028683576&categorieLien=id;Law n°2018-771 of September 5,2018 for the freedom to choose one's professional future https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000037367660&categorieLien=id.].While the reform on vocational training for employment and social democracy finalized the decentralization of vocational training by giving regions the means for a more coherent action and placed them as a pilot for the construction of training policies,the recent law for the freedom to choose one's professional future recentralises the regulation of continuing vocational training and sandwich courses.This development will not fail to impact the governance of the CFA,especially those of Higher Education anchored in the small territories.Faced with this major structural issue in the specific context of a small island economy,the University Center for Apprenticeship Training in the Corsican region strives,for a decade,to contribute to the enhancement of the professional integration of work-study students from the University of Corsica,by the development and the durability of determining factors characteristic of a small territorial area in search of structuration[Specially:increased employability and quality of professional integration of its human capital,demonstrated growth in the level of skills acquisition in line with the needs expressed by local socio-economic actors,transfer of relevant knowledge through the learning process,active incentive to entrepreneurial capacity.].After having highlighted the qualitative results resulting from the activity dynamics of the CFA University in Corsica,this contribution will analyze the perspectives drawn from the exemplary nature of the latter in the context of a new law that is supposed to contribute to the regional structuring of a knowledge and competence economy.

The Vocational Integration of Students-Apprentices in the Context of a Pandemic Crisis:Feedback from the University CFA in Corsica

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated major economic impacts in the vast majority of countries,including falling GDP and global trade,massive job losses,deficits and increased public debt.If quasi-generalized interventionist economic policies have made it possible to cushion the paralysis of the productive devices,the short-term global outlook remains very uncertain.In this gloomy context,what will be the situation on the labour market,and in particular the vocational integration of students?Corsica presents the example of a small island territory in search of a regional development scheme based on the economy of knowledge and competence.In this major structural perspective,the University Apprenticeship Training Centre(CFA UNIV)in the Corsican region has been striving,for a decade,to contribute to the enhancement of studentsapprentices vocational integration from the University of Corsica.Within the scope of its activities,are the monitoring and evaluation of the students-apprentices’professional integration from the University of Corsica.Since 2011,the carrying out the annual surveys on studentsapprentices’future from the University of Corsica has demonstrated the capacity of the sandwich course training in Higher Education simultaneously to boost the employability of skilled human capital and the growth of local business structuring.This contribution will aim to synthesize ten years of CFA UNIV experience and will endeavour to analyse the localized consequences of a global pandemic crisis on the nature of the vocational integration studentapprentices from the University of Corsica in a small territory island.