As a player in local and regional development, VINCI places diversity, equal opportunities, inclusion and sustainable employment at the centre of its actions to foster social cohesion. This is one of the major commitments in its Manifesto.
To take this further, the Group has been designing, financing and implementing a vast France-wide programme, since the end of 2018, to promote employment for youths from underprivileged areas.
Give Me Five, as its name suggests, is based on five levers for action, devised to see these young people through each key stage on their journey.
CAREER GUIDANCE
For 5,000 students in their final year of middle school
5-day internships in our companies
Interns spend a week discovering the Group's business activities through visits to its worksites and other operations, presentations of its business lines and conversations with employees. The programme also includes practical workshops, for example on speaking in public.
The programme is made to measure, in partnership with academic boards and head teachers in disadvantaged areas.
The verdict?
The best assessment I can think of was when I saw my final-year students grinning ear to ear (behind their face coverings). They all told me – no exceptions – how much they had appreciated their internship."
William Govaert, Head Teacher, Collège Rosa Parks, Marseille
ONE-TO-ONE COACHING
Workshops and meetings to help provide career guidance, before, during or after internships
In partnership with four non-profits (Unis-Cité, Institut Télémaque, Crée ton avenir and Viens voir mon taff), the same students take part in workshops to explore the professional world and meet inspiring people. The words of this principal teacher from Collège Romain Rolland in Waziers (northern France) pay a nice tribute to this support and its effectiveness:
You get them on board with you, they see a future for themselves there, they understand the issues; that takes serious expertise, I'm impressed you manage to do all that in one hour."
PROFESSIONAL INTEGRATION
Facilitating access to longer internships and end-of-studies work experiences for students on courses ranging from vocational diplomas to master's degrees
During the days organised with Mozaïk RH, a recruitment firm and diversity consultancy, recruitment officers from the Group's companies meet students from underprivileged areas looking for internships.
I've just signed my 6-month internship contract for an industrial vision engineer position at VINCI Energies! Mozaïk RH's support was extremely helpful to prepare for the meeting with VINCI's recruiters!"
Laouad Ayoub, Master 2 student (Industry), Lyon
APPRENTICESHIPS
More than 2,000 apprentices hired each year in our companies
To take its drive to hire young apprentices to the next level, VINCI connects youths, training institutes and Group companies, in partnership with JobIRL, the first social network for career guidance, through a platform designed specifically to find work-study schemes within VINCI companies.
We're aiming for the same thing as VINCI: to improve young people's employability by introducing them to forward-looking sectors, to the company's codes when they're young, and setting them up for success on their first job experiences."
Christelle Meslé-Génin, Chair and Founder, JobIRL
PROFESSIONAL INTEGRATION
3 months of training and 3 months of immersion in our companies, to open doors back into jobs for hundreds of youths at high risk of exclusion.
Enabling young people on the fringes to find a path back into long-term employment, through a bespoke integration process. That, in a nutshell, is what Step (Stratégie Territoriale pour l’Emploi) does. This is Give Me Five's integration programme, and it is led by VINCI insertion Emploi (ViE)*, in partnership with Afpa, France's leading provider of vocational training leading to qualifications for adults.
The programme: 3 months of hands-on training, during which young adults refurbish bungalows for a charity, followed by a 3-month immersion in one of VINCI's companies. And the results are encouraging: 80% of these youths find their way back into long-term jobs!
* In 2020, the programme won a 100% Inclusion award from the French Ministry of Labour's Plan d’Investissement des Compétences. This plan is aimed at bringing back people who have drifted off employment agencies' radars, have little or no qualifications, and have "dropped out".
