CAPES was created in 1950 to recruit
teachers for public general and technical secondary schools. It succeeds the certificate of aptitude for teaching in collèges (CAEC) created in 1941 (collèges then led to the baccalaureate, alongside state lycées). At that time it concerned the following subjects: • Plastic arts; • Musical education and choral singing; • Philosophy; • Modern literature; • Classics; • History-geography; • Modern languages (Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, Hebrew, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish); • Mathematics; • Physics and chemistry; • Economic and social sciences; • Life and earth sciences; • Physical and sports education. The CAPES of documentation was created in 1989 by
Lionel Jospin, then Minister of National Education, for the recruitment of
Teacher-librarian. The CAPES Coordination Pédagogique et Ingénierie de la Formation was created in 2000 by
Michel Sapin, Minister of Civil Service and State Reform (2000–2002) in the Lionel Jospin government.
1991-2009 From 1991 to 2009, the certificate was obtained in two years after the licence: • At the end of the first year of
IUFM, success in the external competition (open to holders of a bac+3 level diploma). • A second year of IUFM, combining IUFM training (approximately two days per week) and "responsibility internship" in front of classes (from 4 h to 6 h of classes per week until June 2006, then from 6 h to 8 h of classes per week from the beginning of the 2006 school year). An academic jury (chaired by the Rector) delivered the professional qualification examination, which fully validated the certificate of aptitude (CAPES) and allowed tenure in the corps of certified teachers.
Since 2010 Candidates for the competition must now obtain a master's degree to validate their CAPES. The two courses are simultaneous. At the end of their year of training, the teacher therefore has at least a level of bac +5. The CAPES in Classical Letters is abolished in 2013, and merged with the CAPES in Modern Letters to give the CAPES in Letters. The Ministry of National Education announced in 2014 the creation of an IT option for the external CAPES and the CAFEP-CAPES in mathematics from the 2017 session of the competitive examination. On the occasion of her visit to Japan,
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Minister of National Education, announced in 2016 the creation of a CAPES in Japanese. The CAPES in classical and modern literature are reinstated by an order published in the
Journal Officiel de la République Française on 10 May 2018, although there are few changes in the tests. == Competition ==