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.

Use of fly ash with no water consumption for cold regions transportation infrastructure

The construction period in cold regions is very short due to problems related to excavation and use of frozen soils in embankment construction, which leads to excessive deformations upon thawing. Also, handling of compaction water is critical due to freezing temperatures. Coalburning thermal power plants are very common in cold regions to supply electricity. The inorganic part of the pulverized coal after burning produces fly ash, which is available in large volumes. Due to excavation difficulties and the poor engineering behavior of frozen soils in cold regions, the utilization of fly ash when it is readily available must be promoted. Any construction technique which utilizes alternative materials like fly ash and minimizes water consumption has a potential to extend the short construction season and even allow service and maintenance during extreme weather conditions. This paper presents two potential techniques to solve the moisture affinity of silt-sized materials like fly ash. One technique involves in-plant production of fly ash pellets using cold-bonding pelletization to manufacture aggregates of up to 40,000-~tm diameter from 15- to 60-~tm-diameter fly ash grains. Large disc pelletizers have annual production capacities of up to one million ton at a reasonable cost. The product has adequate strength for embankment construction even when no water is used and no compaction is applied. The second technique is an in situ mixing technique which uses snow instead of compaction water for fly ash. The snow is the main element in this technique to compact the embankment. Water is needed for the hydration reactions to form cementitious minerals in fly ash. The slower the hydration reaction, the greater the crystal growth of cementitious minerals. In the proposed technique, in situ snow is mixed with fly ash and is compacted on-site. The temperature increase due to the hydration reaction of fly ash upon contact with snow crystals provides water for continued long-term hydration, which results in high strength, a high void ratio, light weight, and high thermal insulation capability. The presented techniques have the potential to extend the short construction season in cold regions and will provide fill material, decreasing the need for excavation. Both techniques are well documented under laboratory conditions, the research results have been published, and the techniques are ready for field trials to assess implementability.

Process and cause of urban-rural development transformation in the Bohai Rim Region, China

China＇s reform and opening-up policy has brought the country a great development opportunity. The high-speed growth of the economy not only led China to a period of industrialization, urbanization, informatization and agricultural modernization, but also exacerbated the situation of the urban–rural dual structure. Based on the review of current studies, we first used the analytic hierarchy process（AHP） method to evaluate the urban–rural development and transformation level by population transformation index, land transformation index, industrial transformation index and social transformation index between 1996 and 2012 around the Bohai Rim Region. Then, based on the results of each index, we used the exploratory spatial data analysis（ESDA） method to investigate the spatial autocorrelation of the change in the urban–rural development transformation index during the 16-year period using Global Moran＇s I index and Local Moran＇s I index. Finally, we investigated the mechanism of change of the urban–rural development transformation index at county level, summarizing five main factors：（1） the radiation from the surrounding big cities,（2） the acceleration of the urbanization process,（3） the upgrading of the industrial structure,（4） the publishing and implementation of a macro development strategy and regional policy, and（5） natural factors such as topology.