Depuis 2003, un accord cadre entre la Région et les six universités de son territoire, ainsi qu’avec le CNAM et le CESI. Objectif: favoriser le développement de la formation professionnelle continue dans l’enseignement supérieur.
A ce titre, la Région a pour mission de co-financer la mise en œuvre de trois objectifs structurants de l’activité de formation continue:
* l’accueil/l’information des publics prioritaires,
* l’individualisation des parcours de formation,
* le développement de la validation des acquis de l’expérience.
Le public bénéficiaire:
* Principalement les demandeurs d’emploi qui ont interrompu leurs études depuis plus de 12 mois.
* Egalement, dans un second temps, les publics en promotion sociale, dont parmi ceux-ci prioritairement les salariés en situation précaire et les femmes isolées.
Pour ces publics éligibles qui intègrent une formation, le principe de gratuité est réaffirmé. L’objectif visé prioritairement est l’acquisition d’un premier diplôme universitaire national à dimension professionnelle, dans une optique de retour à l’emploi.
Près de 400 formations, du niveau IV (DAEU) à I (Master 2) sont ainsi offertes dans les quatre universités:
* Aix-Marseille Université,
* Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis,
* Université du Sud Toulon Var,
* Université d’Avignon et des Pays de Vaucluse.  
Quant au Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers - CNAM de Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, le programme d’activités propose l’accès à 50 certifications dans 10 domaines de spécialités différents: mathématiques et sciences; spécialités pluritechnologiques de la production; transformations; génie civil, construction bois; mécanique, électricité, électronique, échanges et gestion; communication et informatique; services aux personnes; services aux collectivités.
Retrouvez les formations supérieures financées par la Région dans le cadre de la formation continue sur le site Espace Compétences: Enseignement supérieur.

Parce que la vie professionnelle est en constante mutation, il convient de s’adapter, de changer de voie, de rebondir… La formation revêt ainsi une importance capitale quel que soit l’âge. Alors que la mondialisation affecte profondément le monde du travail, que nos sociétés se caractérisent par un chômage persistant des jeunes et des adultes et que près de 10% des jeunes quittent encore les bancs de l’école sans diplôme, il est nécessaire d’offrir à chaque habitant de Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur la possibilité de se former quel que soit son âge. Un droit individuel à la formation et à la qualification tout au long de la vie doit être garantit.
"Un plan régional de formation pour la qualification des jeunes demandeurs d’emploi"
Il propose, en priorité aux personnes dépourvues de qualification, la possibilité de suivre une formation professionnelle qualifiante en établissant un diagnostic des besoins sociaux et économiques des territoires. Ce sont les acteurs locaux, l’ANPE et les missions locales qui en sont chargés. Car il ne s’agit pas uniquement d’obtenir un diplôme, mais aussi que ce diplôme soit recherché par les employeurs. Autrement dit, que l’offre réponde à la demande. Il s’agit également de mettre en cohérence sur l’ensemble de son territoire les différents dispositifs de formation. Les ressources de formation sont nombreuses et diverses: formations technologiques et professionnelles initiale et continue, de premier niveau, secondaire ou supérieure, apprentissage, formations en alternance. Les jeunes et les adultes y ont aujourd’hui accès, quel que soit leur statut. C’est une nécessité car nombreux sont ceux qui se trouvent éloignés de l’emploi. La Région est chargée de coordonner les systèmes de formation, économique et social. Elle développe des dispositifs, crée des passerelles et propose, dans le cadre du dispositif régional de formation professionnelle continue, des programmes adaptés: http://www.cprdf-paca.org/.
Signé par l’usager et la Région, il ouvre droit au statut de stagiaire de la formation professionnelle, ainsi qu'à une rémunération pendant la durée de la formation considérée. Peuvent y avoir accès:
    * Les jeunes sortis de 16 à 26 ans (non révolus)
    * Les adultes demandeurs d'emploi sans qualification
    * Les salariés qui souhaitent se qualifier ou améliorer leur qualification dans l'optique d'une promotion sociale.
Choisir son orientation, se remettre à niveau et obtenir une première qualification, ce contrat en trois étapes se veut le sésame d'un emploi durable. Illustration concrète du droit individuel à la formation, il se traduit par un crédit de formation renouvelable une seule fois.
Le bénéficiaire peut également être rémunéré au titre de stagiaire de la formation professionnelle quand il ne dispose d’aucune autre prise en charge. Les stagiaires sont épaulés dans leur orientation par des conseillers qui les aident à définir leur projet professionnel au sein des organismes de formation, pour les adultes ou dans les missions locales pour les moins de 26 ans.
L’expérience professionnelle : un bagage à ne pas négliger
L’exercice d’une activité est la preuve de compétences qui doivent pouvoir être valorisées. La validation des acquis de l'expérience (VAE) permet ainsi aux adultes bénéficiant d'une expérience professionnelle et personnelle de faire reconnaître par un diplôme les compétences acquises. Pour cela il suffit d’exercer une activité professionnelle depuis au moins 3 ans.
La VAE a ainsi inauguré, lors de sa mise en place en 2002, une toute nouvelle voie d’accès à la certification. Aujourd’hui nombreux sont ceux qui ont bénéficié de ce dispositif. Pourquoi pas vous? http://www.vae-paca.org/.
"Des espaces ouverts d'éducation permanente"
La Région a crée en 2004 des « espaces ouverts d’éducation permanente ». Ouverts en dehors des horaires classiques (soirées et samedis), ces centres de ressources offrent un lieu calme et studieux à tous ceux qui souhaitent passer des concours ou se renseigner sur les possibilités d’orientation. Sur place, des outils performants (livres, ouvrages sur les concours, Internet, CD Rom…) permettent de travailler efficacement. Grâce à une nouvelle approche, ces espaces mettent réellement en œuvre la possibilité pour chacun d'accéder à la formation tout au long de la vie en offrant un accès libre aux savoirs et aux connaissances.

La loi du 13 août 2004 relative aux libertés et aux responsabilités locales a accru les responsabilités des Régions notamment en matière de formation professionnelle mais également de coordination du soutien au développement économique régional. Dans ce cadre, la Région a choisi d’élaborer son Schéma Régional de Développement Economique (SRDE) qui a été approuvé le 12 juin 2006.
La Région a confié aux structures gestionnaires des PRIDES, au titre de leurs fonctions d’animation générale et d’ingénierie de projets, entre autres missions, celle de participer au développement d’initiatives en faveur du développement durable des entreprises (aussi bien sur le volet environnemental que sur le volet social et humain) et de la Responsabilité Sociale, notamment par des démarches qualifications-compétences et de formation des salariés. Dans ce cadre, la Région a réorienté son partenariat historique avec l’AGEFOS PME et l’OPCAREG vers le renforcement des moyens d’action des PRIDES pour la formation des salariés de leurs entreprises parties prenantes.
Au terme d’une convention pluriannuelle d’objectifs 2007-2009, il leur revient, en lien avec la gouvernance des PRIDES, de piloter la réalisation d’actions de conseil en matière de gestion des ressources humaines et de formation des salariés en direction des entreprises des PRIDES et de leurs salariés.
Cet engagement doit permettre la promotion du volet social lié au développement durable des entreprises des PRIDES, à travers trois initiatives:
* l’organisation et la conduite de journées d’action d’information collective et de sensibilisation des entreprises des PRIDES sur l’opportunité de s’engager dans des démarches de type Gestion Prévisionnelle des Emplois et Compétences -GPEC-;
* le soutien apporté à des « démarches de qualifications-compétences » de type GPEC, centrées sur la préparation de plans de formation pluriannuels ambitieux;
* l’ingénierie de l’organisation, de la réalisation et du suivi d’actions de formation professionnelle continue pour les salariés des entreprises des PRIDES.
Ces actions seront dispensées en priorité en direction des salariés les moins qualifiés dont le faible accès à la formation peut, à terme, à la fois entraîner une diminution des compétences nécessaires au maintien dans l’emploi occupé, voire être un obstacle majeur à la promotion professionnelle et personnelle, mais également constituer un handicap au développement et à la croissance des PME.
Par ailleurs, par l'intermédiaire des Organismes Paritaires Agréés au titre du CIF (OPACIF), la collectivité régionale apporte un soutien au développement du Congé Individuel de Formation.

By Julie Hare and Andrew Trounson. FIVE years ago when arts-economics student Alex McLaren was wondering what to study at university, the last thing on his mind was how much his HECS debt would be. "It just wasn't a consideration. I chose my course out of interest," he said. More...

Posted by Curt Rice for University of Venus, part of the Guardian higher education editorial network. A recent report reveals that only 12% of third year female PhD students want a career in academia. Curt Rice looks at the reasons why and warns that universities' survival is at risk.
Young women scientists leave academia in far greater numbers than men for three reasons. During their time as PhD candidates, large numbers of women conclude that (i) the characteristics of academic careers are unappealing, (ii) the impediments they will encounter are disproportionate, and (iii) the sacrifices they will have to make are great. This is the conclusion of The chemistry PhD: the impact on women's retention, a report for the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET and the Royal Society of Chemistry. In this report, the results of a longitudinal study with PhD students in chemistry in the UK are presented.
Men and women show radically different developments regarding their intended future careers. At the beginning of their studies, 72% of women express an intention to pursue careers as researchers, either in industry or academia. Among men, 61% express the same intention. By the third year, the proportion of men planning careers in research had dropped from 61% to 59%. But for the women, the number had plummeted from 72% in the first year to 37% as they finish their studies.
If we tease apart those who want to work as researchers in industry from those who want to work as researchers in academia, the third year numbers are alarming: 12% of the women and 21% of the men see academia as their preferred choice. This is not the number of PhD students who in fact do go to academia; it's the number who want to. 88% of the women don't even want academic careers, nor do 79% of the men! How can it be this bad? Why are universities such unattractive workplaces?
Part of The chemistry PhD discusses problems that arise while young researchers are PhD candidates, including too little supervision, too much supervision, focus on achieving experimental results rather than mastery of methodologies, and much more. The long-term effects, though, are reflected in the attitudes and beliefs about academia that emerge during this period. The participants in the study identify many characteristics of academic careers that they find unappealing: the constant hunt for funding for research projects is a significant impediment for both men and women. But women in greater numbers than men see academic careers as all-consuming, solitary and as unnecessarily competitive.
Both men and women PhD candidates come to realise that a string of post-docs is part of a career path, and they see that this can require frequent moves and a lack of security about future employment. Women are more negatively affected than men by the competitiveness in this stage of an academic career and their concerns about competitiveness are fuelled, they say, by a relative lack of self-confidence.
Women more than men see great sacrifice as a prerequisite for success in academia. This comes in part from their perception of women who have succeeded, from the nature of the available role models. Successful female professors are perceived by female PhD candidates as displaying masculine characteristics, such as aggression and competitiveness, and they were often childless.
As if all this were not enough, women PhD candidates had one experience that men never have. They were told that they would encounter problems along the way simply because they are women. They are told, in other words, that their gender will work against them.
By following PhD candidates throughout their study and asking probing questions, we learn not only that the number of women in chemistry PhD programs who intend to pursue a career in academia falls dramatically, but we learn why. (See also Why go for a PhD? Advice for those in doubt.)
This research and the new knowledge it produces should be required reading for everyone leading a university or a research group. The stories surely apply far beyond chemistry. Remember that it's not just women who find academia unappealing. Only 21% of the men wanted to head our way, too. Universities will not survive as research institutions unless university leadership realises that the working conditions they offer dramatically reduce the size of the pool from which they recruit. We will not survive because we have no reason to believe we are attracting the best and the brightest. When industry is the more attractive employer, our credibility as the home of long-term, cutting edge, high-risk, profoundly creative research, is diminished.
The answers here lie in leadership and in changing our current culture to build a new one for new challenges. The job is significant and it will require cutting edge, high-risk leadership teamwork to succeed. Is your university ready?
Curt Rice is a regular contributor at University of Venus and vice president for research at the University of Tromsø in Norway.

By Eliza Anyangwe. Good facilities are integral to good universities, so how can HE leaders finance, plan and manage their estates in a way that leads to gains and not losses?
Campus development: everyone's at it. From minor refurbishment projects to more sizeable construction jobs, it would seem - in the UK at least - that appetite for new, bigger and better facilities has defied the austerity mantra. State-of-the-art facilities are not simply a vanity project. They help attract students, provide a tailored space in which academic staff can teach and conduct research, and are part of the wider distinctiveness and economic strategy.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) puts it this way: "Research shows the increasing importance of the role of higher education institutions in local and regional economies through knowledge creation and knowledge transfer. Facilities play a crucial role in meeting educational needs and providing places where knowledge exchange can happen. However, they are an expensive commodity to provide and maintain."
And at a time of considerable change in higher education, coupled with a global economy in renewed crisis, many wonder if greater gains could not be achieved by investing elsewhere in the sector - predominantly in teaching and research. But the question shouldn't be whether buildings are worth more than brains. In an assessment of which is more valuable to the creation of scientific knowledge, scientists or facilities, assistant professor Fabian Waldinger concludes: "It is difficult to evaluate how much high quality scientists and better facilities contribute to the creation of scientific knowledge".
Similarly, a non-targeted injection of funds into capital projects won't guarantee a university's survival. As a recent report into US colleges and universities found, development without a good strategic plan could lead to liquidity issues. The report, The financially sustainable university, explains: "Many institutions have operated on the assumption that the more they build, spend, diversify and expand, the more they will persist and prosper. But instead, the opposite has happened: Institutions have become over-leveraged."
So how can facilities and senior managers finance, plan and manage their estates in a way that leads to gains and not losses? And as technology permeates all areas of HE, what is its role in facilities management? Join our live chat panel to explore what an effective learning environment looks like, what the benchmarks and performance indicators of effective management are, and how to make university facilities financially and environmentally sustainable.

By Adam Dinham. University leadership needs to engage in better debate about religion in order to best serve their staff and students of all faiths. People will be talking about Mo Farah's Olympic triumph in the men's 10,000m for days to come. Rarely commented upon, however, is the fact his achievement coincides with Ramadan, when Muslims traditionally fast from sunrise to sunset and follow a discipline of prayer and dedication which can be highly demanding, both of mind and body. This presents a massive challenge to Muslim athletes, and many – Mo among them – decided to excuse themselves from fasting this year after careful discussion with family, friends and clerics.
Students around the world will face a similar dilemma next year when Ramadan falls in the middle of university and school exam periods. What, if anything, should educators be doing about this? The Religious Literacy Leadership Programme, which works with university vice-chancellors, staff, sector leaders and students to develop outlooks and strategies that engage positively with faith, appreciates this challenge more than most.
'Religious literacy' has become a talking point since we lost the ability to talk about religion when we needed it most. Billions of people around the world are religious, despite secularism's expectation that religion would have declined to vanishing point by now. Migration and globalisation mean that we all encounter the full range of religious beliefs – and non-beliefs – in everyday life, as voters, volunteers, service users, partners, leaders, and educators.
How well do we handle those encounters? This is an important question, not just for universities and not just during Ramadan, but for all religious traditions, faiths and beliefs in all sectors and settings. Liberalism's answer has been to rise above the fray, to insist on neutrality in shared public space, in the hope the debates will go away. The rise of Islamophobia in the aftermath of 9/11 and 7/7 show this approach to be inadequate. As do the millions of volunteer hours and pounds contributed by faith-based social action and community initiatives, which represent a missed opportunity for those who choose to ignore them. We need a renewed public language for public faith.
The exams during Ramadan issue is a good example of why. Come exam time for the next few years, Muslims everywhere will be waking at 4am to eat breakfast before the sun comes up. These meals can be hearty affairs and many people will carry on with their days from there. The dilemma for stressed-out students, with one or maybe two exams in the day, is whether to snatch a little sleep there or then, or wait for an opportunity for forty winks later in the day. The alternative – and the one which usually plays out – is simply to plough on so that by the middle of the afternoon exam many of these students are pie-eyed with exhaustion, hunger and thirst. These are not the best conditions for performance. Dinner has to wait till the end of the long summer day and it's a case of late night eating, sleeping on full stomachs, and waking again before dawn. These are not ideal conditions for any student.
How then can universities prepare for this? Their choice of approach will depend on wider attitudes towards religion, both inside and outside higher education. Some institutions will make no accommodations. Others will bend over backwards to provide an atmosphere of care and support for their students. In universities with big Muslim populations, like University of Bradford, there will be a compelling sense of the issues and which practical measures might help. In those with very limited diversity, the issue may seem all but irrelevant.
The advice which the Religious Literacy Leadership Programme will issue in the autumn proposes a common sense approach, rooted in open discussion with religious students and staff about what seems most reasonable, and with local Muslim groups and Imams to hear how they might be able to help out. These don't need to be big, formal engagements: forging warm, local relationships will help build up the knowledge and resilience required. And in the vast majority of cases, a common sense approach will lead to a common sense response.
Whatever the practical solutions, it is crucial that we get better at thinking about religion. Kneejerk reactions, semi-conscious hostility or tired narratives about its role in conflict and conversion simply won't do. Those attitudes belong to another century. Knowing a bit about the lived experience of religious identity is as important to demystifying the 'other' as race discourse has been to nurturing ethnic diversity in our institutions. Surfacing our often ambivalent and muddled feelings about religion will also be important in order to crack open a more good-tempered, well-informed discussion.
In short, we need to improve the debate significantly – not more religion, but a better quality of conversation about religion, for all of our students, of all faiths (and none).
Adam Dinham is professor of faith and public policy and director of the Faiths & Civil Society Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London.

By Melonie Fullick for University of Venus, part of the Guardian Higher Education Network Guardian Professional. The emotions associated with exams reflect not just the problems that come with the mass production of graduates, but also hint at wider governance flaws in modern higher education.
Many academics are now enjoying a brief breather before the summer term begins but not so long ago, we were in April, battling through the cruellest month in (Anglo-North American) universities. April marks the point at which the yearly academic cycle reaches its peak with final exams, which are preceded by the crushing weight of end-of-term assignments. Some students, worn out by the demands of the season, lapse into a state of caffeine-fuelled zombie-like vacancy. For those of us on the receiving end of their work, there is the prospect of a mountain of marking that forms the final obstacle before this - the summer holidays.
Based on the feelings expressed regularly by many professors and graduate students, I don't think grading is something many people see as a form of genuine and enjoyable engagement with students, unless it is a case where the course director has been creative with the assignments and/or most of the students are motivated to work hard. Instead, professors and teaching assistants tend to experience grading as a chore (or in some cases, an ordeal) that must be completed so that marks can be submitted – a technocratic necessity rather than a pedagogical one.
This makes sense for a few reasons. Grading is not an inherently meaningful activity, but more a function of a hierarchical institution, that mass produces graduates. A letter or number grade assigns a relative value to a student's performance, which is then used as a measure of his or her value within the educational system overall. Outside of this system, assigned marks have little relevance.
As such, in an increasingly competitive environment students may see grades more as tokens of exchange than signifiers of acquired skill. That's partly because it's so hard to assess genuine learning and link that to an objective 'standard'. Students may (rightly) see grades as flexible, and act on this assumption, possibly encouraged by the consumerist tendency that comes with attaching a price tag to education - conflating payment for access with payment for an outcome.
Another issue is that we've institutionalised the factors that make grading unenjoyable. The process and schedule of the academic year ensures this: grading tends to happen all at the same time, there's usually quite a lot of it, and because students are fatigued and under pressure, what we see might not be representative of their potential.
In the past I've also felt as if I have little influence over the outcomes I see when I'm grading assignments. I remember this was among the first issues that alerted me to 'something rotten' in the state of academia, years ago when I started working as an undergraduate teaching assistant. It wasn't that I didn't care – I cared a lot; I wanted then, and still want now, to help students to learn and write well and earn the marks they desired. But I didn't have the time and energy (and skill) to provide the level of help they seemed to require. Later, it was both relieving and distressing to realise I was working with all their past and present educational (and life) experiences, not just my own inadequacies.
A student's pre-higher education experience matters but grading must also be assessed within the institutional framework in which university teaching takes place. Not only do we have more students now, but the students themselves must juggle their involvement with education with other demands on their time and energy. We must also find ways of engaging with, and helping students from more varied educational backgrounds, without making unreasonable demands on those who do the teaching (and grading). And somehow, as teachers in this system we must become more 'efficient', given the perpetual economic tightening - all the while, there are larger connections to job insecurity for academic staff.
This is where governance meets (and clashes with) pedagogy in higher education. And for all these reasons, the conditions of post-secondary teaching demand attention at the level of the egg timer often used to ration each minute of essay marking. Grading, and the feelings and problems associated with it, show us only a few of the ways in which the long-term devaluing of teaching in the academic economy is both experienced and perpetuated in our everyday lives.
Melonie Fullick is currently a PhD student working on research in post-secondary education, policy and governance at York University in Canada. She is also a member of the editorial collective at University of Venus – follow her on Twitter @qui_oui.

Uruguay’s government-financed national university came up in position 79 in the QS academic quality international ranking of the top 100 Latinamerican universities. Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia were far better ranked than Uruguay’s Universidad de la Republica, Udelar, which has caused deep concern among government officials.
The annual report from Quacquarelli Symonds, one of the most prestigious international companies in the assessment of universities academic level and achievements has been doing the ranking at global level since 2004, but on 2011 started a special branch dedicated to Latin America.
Brazilian and Chilean universities lead the pack followed by Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. Top of the list is the University of Sao Paulo; followed by the Catholic University of Chile; Campinas State university, Brazil; University of Chile; Mexico’s National Autonomous university; University of the Andes, Colombia; Monterrey Technology Institute, Mexico; the Federal university of Rio do Janeiro; University of Concepción, Chile; University of Santiago de Chile and the University of Buenos Aires.
The QS ranking take into consideration six basic indicators, with different percentages, to elaborate the listing: academic reputation from Global survey which accounts 40%; employer reputation from Global survey, 10%; citations per faculty from Sciverse Scopus, 20%: faculty/student ratio, 20%; proportion of international students, 5% and proportion of international faculty, 5%.
While the Uruguayan university achieved 46.1 points, the University of Sao Paulo, the first ranked had 100 points, according to QS. However the performance of Udelar climbed 15 points from 2011, when it ranked in post 94.
Of the six indicators Udelar is best positioned in the citations per faculty with 96.7 points, equivalent to post 12. It ranks the lowest in the faculty/student ratio, with only 3.9 points and ranks 151.
Earlier this year Scimago Journal & Country Rank which includes the journals and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus database, assessed 1.401 universities in 43 different countries and Udelar figured in position 70, but 32 if ranked only among Latinamerican universities.
One of the indicators considered for this evaluation was the number of scientific papers published between 2006 and 2010. Udelar figures with 2.664 papers, however Sao Paulo University recorded 44.610 and the Buenos Aires University, 10.555.
None of Uruguay’s private universities or tertiary centres figured in the QS ranking.