Gayraud, L., Simon-Zarca, G. & Soldano, C. Université: les défis de la professionalisation. Céreq, Marseille, 2011. Pages: 36.

While this short report, issued in the French series Notes Emploi Formation (NEF), mainly focuses on the French higher education context, it addresses a topic that is clearly important for higher education in many places around the world – the role of universities in guaranteeing the employability (professionalisation) of their future graduates. In the view of the authors, this relatively new function of higher education institutions addresses two main dimensions: first, the role of institutions and teachers when it comes to the acquisition by students of professional competences that will be recognised and applicable on the labour market; second, the continuous guidance and tutoring of students with a view to their transition to the labour market.

The report aims to answer the overall question of how this function to guarantee employability is conceived and implemented within universities. It does so by first giving an overview of the evolution of this phenomenon in the French higher education system, in parallel with the recent changes in the structure of degree programmes. Further, the report explores how these changes have penetrated the policies and missions of universities. And last but not least, it provides examples of how employability modules have been integrated in French general licence programmes from about ten French institutions.

Centre d’études et de recherches sur les qualifications - Céreq (in French)