THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF ON-SITE MANAGERS OF APARTMENT HOUSES IN FRANCE

－Status of the Gardien(ne)s' vocational training programs－

Abstract

 Currently in Japan, a situation exists where residences and their live-in residents are aging. Therefore, there is a growing interest in restructuring the property management systems to support the extension of both building and resident lifespans. As part of the issue, concern has risen over the possibility of human management. Human management can be defined as house management duties performed by a permanently stationed person.

 France can be said to be an advanced country that has adopted human management of apartment houses. On-site managers called gardien(ne)s d'immeuble have been employed in private apartment houses in France since the nineteenth century, and a 2001 decree has made it mandatory for social housing estates to employ gardien(ne)s. Prior to the decree, a vocational qualification for gardien(ne)s was created by French government in 1994. Thus, it can be said that the French government promotes the professionalization of gardien(ne)s as on-site property managers.

 This paper aims to evaluate the status of gardien(ne)s' vocational training programs for developing human management in Japanese apartment houses. The following conclusions were drawn from the results:

 First, gardien(ne)s' vocational training programs can be classified into three categories according to their educational purposes. The first category, which began about fifteen years ago when the vocational qualification system was improved, contains programs for acquiring a vocational qualification . The second category, which was the pioneer program and was started about thirty years ago, contains programs for gardien(ne)s in social housing. The third category, which was created a few years ago, contains programs for gardien(ne)s in private apartment houses. Judging from the commencing times, it might be said that French human management was reorganized in social housing after which it was born in private apartment houses; on the other hand, it is actually having an effect again on human management in private apartment houses.

 Second, according to the job advertisements, the management duties of social housing gardien(ne)s are as follows: (1) management of rooms in the social sector on behalf of owners (e.g., inspection of rental units), (2) maintenance of common areas, which is also a part of the gardien(ne)s' duties for private apartment houses, and (3) reconciliation between residents and the social sector. Therefore, enhancement of communication skills and acquisition of specialized knowledge are considered the most important aspects of the vocational training programs.

 Third, there are four types of cost burden for the vocational training program: (1) local government subsidy, (2) funds to manage individual leaves for vocational training , (3) employer contribution, and (4) self-pay. The self-pay type is rare, whereas the employer contribution type is common.

 Fourth, the institutions that provide gardien(ne)s' vocational training programs consider the following four points based on the changes from the 2001 mandate for French social housing estates to employ gardien(ne)s: (1) improvement of the vocational qualification system, (2) enhancement of the image of gardien(ne)s, (3) the increase for duties with specialized knowledge, and (4) the importance of the gardien(ne)s' role as the residents' mediator.

 It can be concluded that, as far as the multifarious vocational training programs for gardien(ne)s in private apartment houses and social housing are concerned, human management is adaptable to varied residents. It should be noted that the adaptability of human management is reinforced by selecting the contents of vocational training programs or gardien(ne)s' duties according to the residents' characteristics, as in the French case.