Abstract:

The concept of skills entered the field of education and training in the mid-1990s. In a professional world strained by mass unemployment, an increasingly complex production system, and rising expectations for individual qualifications, particularly in service sector jobs and with the advent of the information society, the European Union published its first white paper on education and training in 1995, entitled "Teaching and Learning: Towards the Learning Society". This document mobilized the concept of skills as a key element in addressing these challenges, placing them at the heart of the systems of mobility and career development that Europe needed to envision. Skills thus became a pivotal concept used not only in the world of work, but also to concretely link education and training with the field of employment.

In French higher education, the integration of skills into degree framework has been discussed for about twenty years, but it remains a relatively recent practice, initially developed in programs accessible through apprenticeships. For example, Gustave Eiffel University, in partnership with Lycée Mansart and CFA Descartes, has been offering STUDEA for several years, a digital tool designed to materialize and project a shared vision among all stakeholders (university, company, apprentice) of the skills to be acquired by the apprentices in the workplace.

This shared language of skill-based writing does not imply standardization or a reduction of complexity. On the contrary, it aims to recognize the specificity and complementarity of academic and professional learning, while making their articulation visible in support of the apprentice's skill development. The success of this approach depends on several conditions: training stakeholders in the use of the frameworks, fostering a community of practice to ensure their continuous evolution, and designing simple and pragmatic tools that avoid bureaucratization. However, understanding and mastering the STUDEA tool can sometimes be challenging. Based on a survey conducted among all stakeholders (apprentices, apprenticeship supervisors, and academic tutors) in a professional bachelor's degree program in "Building and Construction Trades," we highlight the difficulties encountered in evaluating skill acquisition in a graduated manner on the STUDEA platform.

In this paper, we propose ways to improve the evaluation and assessment of these skills, particularly through the addition of evaluation criteria that facilitate more nuanced evaluation for the evaluator and a better understanding of the expected outcomes and the learning path for the trainee. In a context where higher education is poised for further growth, and where skills are rapidly evolving due to technological and organizational transformations, the ability to develop and update shared frameworks between higher education and the professional world is a strategic challenge for the relevance and effectiveness of work-study programs.

Keywords:

Apprenticeship, skills evaluation, bachelor's degree, digital devices, work situation, services.