Under the Waves, Mathematics. Exploring the Research of Charles Collot, a Mathematician and Recipient of an ERC Grant in 2023
on January 8, 2024
Published on January 10, 2024– Updated on January 10, 2024
Interview with France Velazquez, vice-president professional training and apprenticeship
Professional training, university, challenges, CY Act Pro, international... France Velazquez, vice-president professional training and apprenticeship, answers the questions raised by "The Letter", the international letter from CY Cergy Paris University.
CY Cergy Paris University: When we talk about professional training, we rarely think of universities. Why?
France Velazquez: The university world accounts for less than 6% of continuing professional training turnover, so there's a whole boulevard ahead of us. Private organisations, the GAFAS and the companies themselves, which internalise via LMS (learning management system) platforms, are all potential competitors but also partners who have a large share of the market.
CY Cergy Paris University: What are the challenges involved in boosting vocational training at university?
France Velazquez: Our challenges lie in being able to structure a clear and accessible offering to communicate widely with the different audiences we need to reach.
High-quality content and interventions are sometimes opaque because they are too complex to grasp, so popularisation will be one of the strong points of the coming years if we are to be visible.
CY Cergy Paris University: The university is known for its research and initial education missions, but less so for its continuing education missions. Could you tell us how long CY Cergy Paris University has been developing this service and for which target groups?
France Velazquez: CY Cergy Paris University has already had a strong presence in vocational training through apprenticeships for more than 20 years. As far as training for the working population is concerned, the process was launched more than 10 years ago and some DUs (university diplomas) still exist and have helped to create solid professional networks.
Access to skills and a broad range of profiles are central concerns for the CY Cergy Paris University community, and we have almost 1,000 graduates through VAE (validation of prior learning and experience). The target groups are working people (work-study students, people undergoing retraining, job-seekers) who want to acquire new skills and are part of a personal project or company strategy, which in this case finances the training.
CY Cergy Paris University: CY Cergy Paris University was the winner in 2023 for the CY Act Pro project. Could you describe the ambitions of this project?
France Velazquez: CY Act Pro is a PIA (plan d'investissement d'avenir) and more specifically a seed fund of 8.34 million euros to accelerate the development of CY Alliance's own resources.
It is also the project of an alliance of 13 partners who are going to provide concrete responses to the accelerating pace of change in employment, which has become very rapid, impacted by the challenges of transition and underlined by the France 2030 plan, the France Stratégie report and the direction of research animation, studies and statistics (DARES) report on jobs in 2030, which are unanimous on the absolute need to adapt our training.
Added to this is the lengthening of working life as a result of pension reform.
Faced with these major challenges, an alliance rich in diversity and academic excellence can guarantee quality services and a quality experience based on three pillars:
CY Cergy Paris University: What training offer do you think CY Cergy Paris University could develop to support companies' international development? Is there a potential for relocation of our continuing education courses?
France Velazquez: Although the first stage is focused more on France, by nature our establishments are very internationally oriented, so it is quite natural that this project will consider the development of international training by capitalising on the partner universities of the EUTOPIA alliance and the existing partnerships via our establishments.
Initial work is due to begin with Warwick on the theme of design.
France Velasquez is VP of professional training and apprenticeship and the director of professional training department of CY Cergy Paris University. She is responsible of the development of the professional training for the work force and the apprenticeship for students. She leads a team of 30 employees in order to support CY Cergy Paris University and the CY Alliance on the professional fields. She has created the first apprentice center of CY Cergy Paris University with the role to guide the students and the companies to build a successful experience transformed most of time by a sustainable employment.
She is also in charge of the execution of the program CY Act Pro (with the aims to address a wide audience, we build micro credentials, certification by block of skills and diploma (MS) to be trained at different paces; the project covers the 13 associated schools of CY Alliance and will provide a high quality training adapted to a changing world).
During her career, she hold leadership positions in national financial organization in professional training area, support board member and develop conception and development of the customer and professionals sectors service offer, Since 2020 France is also vice-president of the life long learning in a professional network (alliance of the director of life long learning in French universities, https://www.fcu.fr). Since 2021 she’s a member of EUTOPIA Flecslab project on life long learning.
France Velazquez: The university world accounts for less than 6% of continuing professional training turnover, so there's a whole boulevard ahead of us. Private organisations, the GAFAS and the companies themselves, which internalise via LMS (learning management system) platforms, are all potential competitors but also partners who have a large share of the market.
CY Cergy Paris University: What are the challenges involved in boosting vocational training at university?
France Velazquez: Our challenges lie in being able to structure a clear and accessible offering to communicate widely with the different audiences we need to reach.
High-quality content and interventions are sometimes opaque because they are too complex to grasp, so popularisation will be one of the strong points of the coming years if we are to be visible.
CY Cergy Paris University: The university is known for its research and initial education missions, but less so for its continuing education missions. Could you tell us how long CY Cergy Paris University has been developing this service and for which target groups?
France Velazquez: CY Cergy Paris University has already had a strong presence in vocational training through apprenticeships for more than 20 years. As far as training for the working population is concerned, the process was launched more than 10 years ago and some DUs (university diplomas) still exist and have helped to create solid professional networks.
Access to skills and a broad range of profiles are central concerns for the CY Cergy Paris University community, and we have almost 1,000 graduates through VAE (validation of prior learning and experience). The target groups are working people (work-study students, people undergoing retraining, job-seekers) who want to acquire new skills and are part of a personal project or company strategy, which in this case finances the training.
CY Cergy Paris University: CY Cergy Paris University was the winner in 2023 for the CY Act Pro project. Could you describe the ambitions of this project?
France Velazquez: CY Act Pro is a PIA (plan d'investissement d'avenir) and more specifically a seed fund of 8.34 million euros to accelerate the development of CY Alliance's own resources.
It is also the project of an alliance of 13 partners who are going to provide concrete responses to the accelerating pace of change in employment, which has become very rapid, impacted by the challenges of transition and underlined by the France 2030 plan, the France Stratégie report and the direction of research animation, studies and statistics (DARES) report on jobs in 2030, which are unanimous on the absolute need to adapt our training.
Added to this is the lengthening of working life as a result of pension reform.
Faced with these major challenges, an alliance rich in diversity and academic excellence can guarantee quality services and a quality experience based on three pillars:
- sponsorship, with the support of the CY Foundation ;
- training, with a skills-based and 'by design' approach to allow total flexibility, and with the technical support of numerous technical experts (pedagogy, creation of hybrid content, creation of blocks and micro-certifications, the 'doing' approach, prospective market analysis, web marketing, marketing .... etc.) ;
- CSR impact consulting.
CY Cergy Paris University: What training offer do you think CY Cergy Paris University could develop to support companies' international development? Is there a potential for relocation of our continuing education courses?
France Velazquez: Although the first stage is focused more on France, by nature our establishments are very internationally oriented, so it is quite natural that this project will consider the development of international training by capitalising on the partner universities of the EUTOPIA alliance and the existing partnerships via our establishments.
Initial work is due to begin with Warwick on the theme of design.
France Velasquez is VP of professional training and apprenticeship and the director of professional training department of CY Cergy Paris University. She is responsible of the development of the professional training for the work force and the apprenticeship for students. She leads a team of 30 employees in order to support CY Cergy Paris University and the CY Alliance on the professional fields. She has created the first apprentice center of CY Cergy Paris University with the role to guide the students and the companies to build a successful experience transformed most of time by a sustainable employment.
She is also in charge of the execution of the program CY Act Pro (with the aims to address a wide audience, we build micro credentials, certification by block of skills and diploma (MS) to be trained at different paces; the project covers the 13 associated schools of CY Alliance and will provide a high quality training adapted to a changing world).
During her career, she hold leadership positions in national financial organization in professional training area, support board member and develop conception and development of the customer and professionals sectors service offer, Since 2020 France is also vice-president of the life long learning in a professional network (alliance of the director of life long learning in French universities, https://www.fcu.fr). Since 2021 she’s a member of EUTOPIA Flecslab project on life long learning.
