FRANCE In France the arrangements for technical and commercial education were re-organised by the Loi Astier of 1919, and by a decree of 1922 the organisations, public and private, interested in vocational guidance were placed under an Under-Secretary of State for Technical Education. Each department into which France is divided has a committee for technical instruction and the majority of them have offices for vocational guidance. Apprentices and young employees under eighteen years of age can, in districts specified by Ministerial Order, be compelled to attend cows professionels. There has been in recent years a considerable increase in the number of full-time schools of in dustrial and commercial education (ecoles pratiques de com merce et d'industrie et ecoles de métiers). In 1926, technical and vocational schools were attended by 311,753 students; the number of vocational schools in 1924 was 1,085 as compared with 143 in 1892. Among the most famous schools of the first rank are the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, Paris, and the Ecole Centrale Lyonnais at Lyons, the Ecole des Mines and Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees. In all there are 6 national schools of arts and crafts, 5 national vocational schools, 114 practical schools of commerce and industry, 3o courses in household arts for girls, and about 65o compulsory vocational courses in 82 departments and 332 communes. In Paris have been organised schools of industrial heating, for foundry work, milling, dietetics, an institute for sanitation and hygiene in industries, an optical institute, and, at Sevres, an institute of ceramics. A law of 1918 authorised the development of agricultural education, and by 1924, 32 prac tical schools of agriculture had been formed while meetings for the dissemination of agricultural knowledge were being conducted under expert guidance.
The characteristic aim of technical education in Germany has been to build up a great industrial nation by systematic training of all grades, from leaders to workmen. The Technische Hoch schule is an institution of university type, providing facilities for scientific research and degrees in engineering. In 1926 the commercial college at Berlin began to confer the doctorate in economics. The Charlottenburg Institution in Berlin, which was completed in 1884 at a cost of about £450,000, includes depart ments for the highest specialised instruction in nearly all techno logical subjects. The success of this institution was one of the
factors which led to the establishment in London of the Imperial College of Science and Technology. Although the Federal Con tinuation School Law is, for financial reasons, largely inoperative, Saxony, Thuringia, Anhalt, Brunswick and Hamburg have intro duced compulsory attendance for both sexes ; other states require it of boys for skilled trades. Since the war, evening classes have become more numerous, particularly in connection with the continuation and engineering schools. "The contrast between the fragmentary beginnings of the system of continuation schools which this country (i.e., Great Britain) can show," reported in 1927 Sir Arthur Balfour's Committee on Industry and Trade— Factors in Industrial and Commercial Efficiency—"and the wide and rapidly extending provision in Germany is a fact of very great importance." The city of Berlin maintains two schools of arts and crafts. In Leipzig there is an arts and crafts section of the City High School and of the Technical Academy, to the latter of which has been added a school of mechanics. Bavaria has two state schools of applied art, one at Munich and the other at Nurem berg. In 1921-22, the German Republic had 11,747 vocational full-time and continuation schools with 1,013,019 male and 329,475 female students.
Austria.—In Austria, the first arts and crafts schools were founded in the nineteenth century; to-day the Republic possesses a variety of such schools. At Vienna are the Polytechnic School and the Graphic School and Experimental Institute. Included in the federal trade schools are higher sections for training students to qualify as owners or directors of industrial establishments in such occupations as the building trades, engineering, and the chemical and textile industries. Successful attendance reduces the period of apprenticeship, while students who pass out with honours are entitled to attend the Austrian Technical University or the College for World Commerce. There are also two-year and one-year educational establishments for women's trades, and special schools for weaving and textiles, locksmiths, watchmaking, electrotechnics, woodwork, metalwork and stonework, ceramics and decorative painting. In 1923-24 there were 148 special voca tional schools.