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EACEA National Policies Platform
France

France

4. Social Inclusion

4.4 Inclusive programmes for young people

Last update: 28 November 2023
On this page
  1. Programmes for vulnerable young people
  2. Funding
  3. Quality assurance

 

Programmes for vulnerable young people

Within the scope of the national strategy for the prevention and fight against poverty, Garantie jeunes (Youth Guarantee) is one of the social inclusion programmes for the most vulnerable youths.

 

The Youth  commitment contract (Contrat d'engagement jeune)

Le Contrat d'engagement jeune is the French answer to the European recommendation of Youth Guarantee. It is intended for young people between the ages of 16 and 25 (or 29 years-old when they are recognized as workers with a handicap) in a precarious situation who have no job, no training, no studies (NEET) and have a very low income.  In order to prevent social exclusion and to favour their integration in employment, the young people are intensively and collectively supported and benefit from vocational training, as well as financial assistance (up to 520 euros) to facilitate their search for employment. The allowance is conditional on the young person's attendance and commitment to the programme. Eligibility for the allowance and the determination of its monthly amount depend on the young person's tax situation, age and the resources he or she may have received the previous month, with certain resources being deducted in full or in part, depending on their nature, from the lump sum.

This programme is run by the ministry responsible forEemployment via local missions or Pôle Emploi local branchs.

It is based on:

  • Intensive collective support from 6 to 12 months (extendable until 18 months for the young persons who are away from employment) on the part of local missions or Pôle Emploi locla branchs;
  • Repeated professional simulation exercises under several possible forms;
  • Individual accompaniment throughout the year;

Monthly financial aid providing the young people concerned with increased autonomy.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Employment, since its launch in March 2022 to September 2022, the Youth Commitment Contract has benefited 178,000 young people. Of these beneficiaries, 45% have no qualifications, 18% live in priority urban neighbourhoods (QPV) and 13% live in rural revitalisation areas (ZRR).

 

In addition to the Youth commitent contract, the national strategy for the prevention and combat against poverty consisted of several measures that are also for youths in a very precarious situation:    A contractual agreement between the State and the departments will be implemented to ensure youths between 18 and 21 years old supported by the youth welfare office (ASE) do not leave the ASE without a solution.

The National strategy included a number of measures specifically targeting young people in situations of extreme precarity:

- improvement of access to rights and social services with universalisation of the “unconditional social reception” scheme; the “Zero non-take-up territories” experiment and introduction of a digital safe so that each and every citizen who so wishes has a secure storage space for their personal data;

- automatic renewal of complementary universal health coverage (CMU-C) for recipients of the Active solidarity income (Revenu de solidarité active - RSA);

- creation of 100 nursing homes and health centres in priority territories;

- implementation of a “100% Health” full reimbursement for spectacles, hearing aids and dental work;

 

Furthermore, since the summer of 2020 and within the framework of the plan to relaunch the economy in response to the effects of the health crisis, the government has started up a programme aimed at youth integration and employment, Plan 1 youth, 1 solution.

Plan 1 young person, 1 solution.

Young people, who have been particularly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, have been the subject of measures under the €100 billion France Relance plan launched in 2020. The European Union is funding this plan to the tune of €40 billion, including €5.2 billion for various measures affecting 16-25 year olds in France.

Of the €100 billion France Recovery Plan, €9 billion has been dedicated to the creation of the "1 young person, 1 solution" plan launched in the summer of 2020.

This 1 young person 1 solution plan is intended to combat youth unemployment. It has enabled the financing of 130,000 contracts dedicated to young people in 2021. It includes several components, which are promoted on the www.1jeune1solution.gouv.fr platform:

- The publication of job offers, internships, work-study programmes and student jobs

- The publication of training offers to achieve a professional project

- Promotion of the Youth Commitment Contract (see below)

- Valuation, on the same platform, of the housing and financial aid for which the young person is eligible with the help of a questionnaire that takes less than five minutes

- Valuation and linking of local missions for local support concerning a pathway and dealing with all integration difficulties: employment, training, orientation, mobility, housing, health, access to culture and leisure

- A platform for creating a personalised CV

- Support for the 1jeune1mentor scheme, launched in 2021 in conjunction with the Collectif Mentorat association, for matching young people with mentors.

The President of the Republic had announced that he wanted to mentor 200,000 young people by the end of 2022. An evaluation of this scheme is underway and so far 150,000 young people have been mentored during the year.

 

Funding

 

The Youth commitment contract

The Contract can be operated by local missions or by Pôle Emploi branches. In 2022, these actors received a budget of 2.6 billion euros. The 2023 Finance Act provides for a budget of €1 billion for this scheme, of which €888 million is for the allowance provided to young people and €115 million for support actions complementary to those carried out by the local missions and Pôle Emploi.

The support is co-financed by the European Social Fund as part of the European Union's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Source: Finance law 2023, Labour and Employment.

 

National strategy for preventing and combating poverty and for social inclusion

The total cost of the National strategy for preventing and combating poverty and for social inclusion (taking all measures together) comes to 8.5 billion euros:

  • 2.1 billion euros devoted to social investment and prevention of poverty.
  • 2.5 billion for assistance in finding employment.
  • 3.9 billion for revision of the Employment Bonus.

Source :https://www.gouvernement.fr/action/strategie-de-prevention-et-de-lutte-contre-la-pauvrete

 

In order to deal with the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, the Government added over 1.8 billion euros to the budget of the strategy for the prevention and fight against poverty.

 

Quality assurance

 

With the support of France Stratégie, a public body dedicated to studies and forward-planning, a Poverty Strategy Assessment Committee is tasked with analysing the impact of all measures on the living conditions of disadvantaged individuals.



It may be mobilised as an assessment body in the context of calls for projects, in particular those financed by social investment funds.

Calls for projects bear on four themes:

  1. “full development of children from early childhood to 6 y/o”;
  2. “reinforced educational support during compulsory schooling”;
  3. “ensuring solvency of the integration pathways of young people 16-25 y/o”;
  4. “access to rights and services, in particular for young people (“Zero non-take-up territory”).