News An agreement linking Wostep with the Pays de Fougères Watchmaking College was signed on 28 June this year, making official the latter's entry into the world Partnership with watchmaking colleges.
Each year, the Pays de Fougères Watchmaking College will enrol 12 new students on its adult training course financed by the regional Council of Brittany. After a two year course comprising 3,000 hours of instruction (500 hours of theory and 2,500 hours of pratical training), these professionals will be able to join manufacturers' after-sales departments or repair workshops, or find employment in the distribution sector.
The idea for the project arose from a meeting with the regional Council of Brittany and a joint initiative involving directors of the Watchmaking Proficiency Centre in Neuchâtel and elected and permanent members of the Pays de Fougères Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI). By setting up this college, the CCI is meeting a need for personnel trained in the after-sales methods of Swiss watches, a very important outlet insofar as it generates an estimated 100 vacancies every year in France.
For more than 20 years, the Education Department of the Pays de Fougères CCI has been offering a variety of training courses: full-time training approved by the Regional Council of Brittany and the European Union, young people's or adult qualification contracts, apprenticeship contracts and student-based training. The relevance of the programmes, the quality of the technical means employed and, more important still, the expertise of the teaching staff comprising both teachers and professionals, are designed to realise a single ambition: training for jobs.
This initiative relies on developing partnerships among different professional sectors, making it possible to propose and develop training courses targeted at openings for which demand is very strong.
Each year, more than 200 students and 2,700 trainees benefit accordingly from teaching that is in phase with the professional world.
The Pays de Fougères Watchmaking College now becomes the sixteenth institution to join the World Partnership proposed by Wostep. Other training centres are of course in Europe (Germany, Finland, France, Great Britain and Sweden), but also in the United States, Japan and China.
September 12, 2002
