The Higher Education and Employment Markets in France

Abstract

The relationships between the educational system and the system of production are neither simple nor linear as might have been presumed in a quite recent period. The term adequacy which is often crucial in education-employment analysis has lost its magical power and the intended goal of establishing a one-to-one correlation between training and jobs, by placing the population on the diagonal of the training-employment matrix, has lost current relevance. At the same time, the more flexible idea that minimal qualifications should exist for holding jobs seems only to apply in a limited way to a relatively small portion of the jobs offered by the system of production. The notion of qualification with its corollary disqualification is, in turn, a vague and non-normative concept, as it is both dated and specified in space as well as time.

This text was written mainly by Alain Mingat. However, it was extensively discussed and modified in the light of J. C. Eicher’s comments. The final version was developed by the two authors.