C.SOL, P.MOSON.

The authors presented the paper "Strengthening the Links between Enterprises and Universities. Alternative Training of Engineers" at the ICEE'99 Conference in Ostrava - Prague (see: http://www.fs.vsb.cz/akce/1999/icee99/Proceedings/index.htm). It demonstrated a successful French educational form and the first results of its adaptation at the Technical University of Budapest.

The common elements (in French, Hungarian practice) are the following: active participation of enterprises in the whole education process (program, contract, training, evaluation); methodology 1 -tutorship (learner - industrial tutor - academic tutor); methodology 2 - regular evaluation (written documents, oral presentation, jury); methodology 3 - long alternation (6 months at the enterprise - 6 months at the university); importance of communication (native, foreign language), management skills.

There are differences between the 2 training forms related to the economical and educational characteristics of these countries. The specialities of the original French practice (1991-…) are: foundation by 6 industrial groups (EDF/GDF, Renault, Schneider, Snecma, Thomson, Usinor/Sacilor) +CNAM. Today 200 partner companies; legal status of the learner: apprentice (employee of an enterprise- salary: 50-78% of minimum wage); organization of the training and industrial relations: CFA Ingénieurs 2000, special accreditation; length of alternative education: 6, 10 semesters; modules (mechanical and production system; electronic and computer sciences; electrical engineering); number of learners: approx. 500. The Hungarian adaptation (1996- …) can be described by the following: foundation by 1 industrial group (Dunaferr), 2 educational institutions TUB, CNAM, supported by the French government and EU PHARE, TEMPUS programs; legal status of the learner: student + contract with an enterprise (scholarships); organization of the training: a unit of TUB, "normal" university diploma; length of alternative education: 4 semesters; modules (architecture, environment, process engineering, steel structures); number of learners: approx. 50.

The lecture and paper at ICEE'2000 Taiwan will discuss the development and extension of this experiment. Here a few elements of these activities are indicated:

Extension in methodology: in both countries (France, Hungary) the role of new information technology and distance learning increases in the training.

International extension of the educational process: there is some experience about the learners' industrial periods in foreign countries.

Extension in Hungary (legal, organizational): the law about the vocational education tax has been modified (creating by this way a financing source), all elements (cooperation, methodology, administration etc.) of the alternative training develop in the whole higher education.

The organizational steps for the creation of a network of alternating higher education institutions in Central-Eastern Europe will be presented as well.

SOL,Charles & MOSON, Peter

CNAM, 292 rue St Martin F-75003 Paris, France. E-mail : sol@cnam.fr .

Budapest University of Technology and Economics, H-1521, Budapest, Hungary,

Email: moson@ tutor.nok.bme.hu .