The implementation of youth guarantee schemes
with the support of European Social Fund and Youth
Employment Initiative
First national policies and results
France
Emmanuelle Wargon – Director General for Employment &
vocational training - Rome – 14.10.2014
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Youth Guarantee Plan : French Situation
 A low youth employment rate for young people (15-24)
around 30% for the last 20 years,
Youth unemployment rate (15-24) is decreasing : 24% in 2013 / 23,4%
2014,
French youth unemployment rate is 2.5 times higher than the overall
unemployment rate,
37.6% of young people with no qualification were unemployed in
France,
French NEET = 990 000 young people.
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Youth Guarantee Plan : French Focus
Youth Policy is the top priority of the French Government : strong
support of the Youth Guarantee Schemes & various new measures (new
subsidised jobs since 2012, social tax exemptions for hiring youth,
apprenticeship & vocational training reform),
3 targets for the Employment Youth Policy in France :
 Improving qualification and vocational training of Young people,
 Improving employability of Young people by strengthening
involvement of enterprises in training,
 Implementation of the Pathway notion = global approach;
France major concern = « the Youth left behind »
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Youth Guarantee Plan : French Focus
Challenges of the French Youth Guarantee Plan :
 Reinforcement of cooperation & renewed partnership between
Public Employment Services (PES) actors,
 New activation & guidance of young people with the more severe
difficulties to integrate the labour market, especially the NEETs,
 Updating the policies towards the young people left behind in
particular through specific experimentations,
 Youth Employment initiative tackling the NEETs public = choice of a
specific Operational Program (OP) YEI (Fr & It),
 New impetus & reflexion on information system & follow up of national
youth policy through work on Youth Guarantee monitoring indicators.
4
Youth Employment Initiative : French Operational
Program (OP) - Architecture

Budget for France = 310,2M€ YEI + 310,2M€ ESF,

National YEI OP [1st OP approved the 3rd of June]:

16 territories ( including 3 sublocal areas & 5 overseas regions)

Budget : 216 M€ YEI + 218 M€ ESF
 National level : 81 M€ YEI + 83 M€ ESF
 Regional level : 135 M€ YEI + 135 M€ ESF

12 Regional OP [validation in process]

Budget : 94 M€ YEI + 94 M€ ESF
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Youth Employment Initiative : French Operational
Program (OP) - Content

French YEI built along NEETS pathways :
1) Identification of the Young People : strong needs for early school
leavers – Improving efficiency of programs (reshaping of the
Platform for drop out, new networking of National educ. Actors,
specific measure for overseas territories),
2) Strenghtened individual Guidance : extension of the « Garantie
jeunes », new capacities for PES operators (creation of Youth case
managers Pole Emploi, enlargement of Missions locales specific
tools, more support for NEETs with high degree),
3) Towards a qualification or a professional experience offer = levers
to job offer: civic service experience, new development of training
in subsidised jobs, dev. Apprenticeship, support to NEETs
entrepreneurship.
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Youth Employment Initiative :The first results

Planning of initiatives still in process,
First steps on YEI : provisional targets for 2014-2015

For all the regions covered by the OP :
 Implementation since Summer 2014,
 130 000 young people in guidance with the 3 PES actors (Pôle
emploi, missions locales, APEC),
 « French Garantie jeunes » : 50 000 yp. in 2015 (26000 yp
financed with YEI),
 Civic Service : 9000 yp,

Additional measures for overseas territories :
 Specific guidance & mobility : 7000 yp
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Youth Employment Initiative :The first results

Delay in implementation due to complexity in mobilizing YEI funding
and budgetary constraints of operators ,

Proposal of reforms to speed up mobilization : more flexible approach
of the NEET status, simplified cost option, make use of EIB
instruments.
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Thank you for your attention
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