This paper undertakes a reflection on the historical and analytical pertinence of the concept of work qualification, in a social context that has replaced it by the notion of skill. It thus tries to understand it from the theoretical point of view, based on the thought of Georges Friedmann and Pierre Naville (especially that of the latter), the fathers of sociology of work in post-war France. Qualification began to become central in this country and in this period: it became not only an aspect of the political and social practice but also - and maybe for this very reason -, the object par excellence of this arising subject matter. This means that qualification has a social and interpretative history, and only through it may we decree or not the end of its analytical operationality. The text arguments that the contributions of Naville, the precursor of the so-called "relativist" vision of qualification - that which conceives it as socially constructed -, are fundamental to think the debate "qualification" versus "skill".
Qualification; Skill; France; Georges Friedmann; Pierre Naville