France and Germany: Supporting Disadvantaged Youth

With programmes such as ‘Espoir Banlieues’ and ‘Chance2’, France and Germany are concretely fighting inequality for disadvantaged youth. The 2010-revised French programme ‘Espoir Banlieues’ (transl. ‘Hope Suburbs’) began in 2008 and supports the employment and employability of young people from “les banlieues”, the low-income districts with a high percentage of non-integrated minorities. Since the launch of the programme by the French Ministry of Economy, Industry and Employment, 38 CEOs, mostly from large public companies, have committed to employ 22,000 young people from disadvantaged areas as part of internships or training contracts. In addition, the state along with the signatories have agreed to support 45,000 young people under 26 with a “contrat d’áutonomie”, a new form of contract for professional inclusion, which provides a half year of government support measures for vocational integration (active job search, training, coaching, etc…). At the end of this period, this group would be placed in sustainable employment with their apprenticeship skills and qualifications. Companies such as Coca Cola and the Elinor Group are strongly commited to the programme. In 2008, Coca Cola pledged that 15% new recruits would come from “les banlieues” and having reached their goal, they have increased their 2010 target to 20%. In February 2010, the Elior Group commited to hire 685 people aged under 26 who live in ‘les banlieues’, and to take on 450 interns and 300 young people on work-study schemes. Elior has already recruited 461 under-26 year olds living in areas identified by the French government in 2008 as priority urban zones.
Germany’s support for disadvantaged youth comes in the form of education. With the new programme ‘Chance2’, pupils in the 9th and 10th class with migrational and non-academic backgrounds will be concretely supported to reach their Bachelor’s degrees. The University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) will develop the new program over a period of seven years with the donation of €2.3 million from the Mercator Foundation. With a goal of increasing the graduation numbers of disadvantaged youth, the organisation hopes to activate hidden potential. The long-term goal is to abolish the existing inequality in education between those with and without migration backgrounds. In the 4 years before A-levels, the four focus areas are: writing and speaking, field of study, trial-time at Universities and mentoring. In addition, the pupils will receive a educational stipend for expenses such as books and materials. If the participants chose to continue their studies at UDE, they will enter the second phase of the programme and will continue to be supported practically and financially until they complete their degree. During the two phases, the participants will have continual support by the same educational aides. In addition, the participants’ parents and schools will be invited to various informational events. By this coming winter semester, a group of 30 pupils and 20 first semester university students will begin the programme and will be supported until their graduations.

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