Over the past 20 years, continuing vocational training in France has evolved within an innovative institutional system that has produced results. The goals of the institutional program are to: (1) give individuals who had been excluded from initial training a second chance; (2) give people greater control over their lives by improving their level of education and training; and (3) permit the adaptation of skills and increase employers' ability to react to economic change. Continual vocational training is a permanent feature in the French economy because of legislation. The legal obligations of employers generated a vast and ever-expanding market for continuing training. As a result, new institutions had to be created to regulate this market and ensure better coordination. The situation gave rise to two kinds of innovations: training insurance funds and training associations. The growth of this training is the result of industrial activities. Employers can be divided into three main groups according to the scale of their training effort: (1) sectors with a strong tradition of continuing training; (2) intermediate situations, in which training accommodates change or resolves a crisis; and (3) sectors providing near the legal minimum. Mainly found in large firms, many innovations in continuing training could prefigure the future role of training investment in employment practices. (Seven references are included.) (NLA)