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Trained for excellence
cus Dis
sed
by
sle* i l e D ichel M Jean
THE FUTURE ENTRUSTED TO TRAINING, THE FRENCH EXAMPLE Different levels to offer a truly higher education and create a system that can produce objects appealing to the new markets, inverting the trend that ghettoised the crafts
The future of the crafts depends also on the training of the young. Within the process of harmonisation of training courses at a European level, it is vital for France to offer its young who choose an artisanal profession degrees at all levels, up to the highest (master, PhD), according to the Bologna Process on the creation of a European space for higher education. The existence of a coherent and wellstructured education system will allow the young to excercise their profession and master the technique, creating objects following the tastes of the different kinds of customers and developing new markets in the best possible way. A new generation of artisan-artists is emerging throughout Europe, inbet ween modernity and sustainable growth. This is the generation that training must cater for, revisiting its reference points regularly. At the same time, the availability of a permanent training must enable professionals to improve their craft, in working on materials (including the new ones), in the search of original shapes and colours. The education to the crafts must be more European than it is now: students can perfect their academic formation in a different European country from their own through European programmes such as Leonardo and Erasmus or any of the many programmes proposed by single member states and local communities. All these offers must be developed and strengthened. The crafts lie at the crossroads of culture, economics and development of the territory: the training to these professions allows the young choosing them to
follow a rich and diversified path, in line with the contemporary world. Training is also another crucial asset for the future; it prepares to technical excellence, develops the artistic sensitivity through a learning process of the project, creates a dialogue with design. It combines precision and creativity, rigour and ingeniousness, impertinence and freedom; it grants a great opening towards the contemporary world. And it should allow the young to develop also those fundamental human qualities that represent the specific feature of these professions. The training to the crafts was sometimes depreciated, as manual work was considered in some countries and in some periods as the refuge of people unable to go on with their studies. Now the sensitivity has changed: the crafts attract increasing numbers of young people with brilliant school careers, or professionals who decide to change their life choosing the work of their dreams. The image of artisanal work has really improved in recent years.
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* Jean-Michel Delisle is President of the Institut National des Métiers d’Art (www.institut-metiersdart.org)
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Considering the importance of this adventure for the future of the field, the Institut National des Métiers d’Art, together with all private and public partners involved, began to reconsider the range of startingup and permanent training and proposed its renewal. In this reform activity, we have considered the practices and experiences of our European partners. The training to the crafts must be considered on a European scale, developing exchanges between the institutions dealing with this task. It should also open itself to research: the breeding ground of tomorrow’s craftsmen. Their future relies on it.
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