Desk research on existing VNFIL good practices and tools

COUNTRY: France

NAME OF THE PRACTICE OR TOOL: HOPE – Hdbergement Orientation Parcours vers lEmploi

(Orientation Routes to Employment)

1. AIM

The main aim of the HOPE project is to provide newly arrived refugees with a full integration, through linguistic competences and formal recognition and validation of their skills and competences.

2. OBJECTIVES

Linguistic, social and, most of all, professional integration in the French society. Validation of professional skills for the employment of newcomers

3. TARGET GROUP

Newly arrived refugees. 27 Nationalities were represented, of which Afghan and Sudanese the most representative. 77% of the participants was younger than 30, whereas 30% younger than 25.

4. SECTOR

Regarding the sectors, 44% of the beneficiaries was employed in the construction industry, 38% in the services sector and 18% in the industrial one.

5. HOW TO USE

After a preliminary phase in which the French Office for Immigration and Integration selects suitable candidates, the very project starts. According to skills, competences and experience assessed at the beginning of the process by a qualified officer, each refugees is guided and trained through an ad hoc tailored path, that will lead him/her to a full integration in the French society.

For verifying and recognizing refugees’skills the programme “1000 validations of professional skills for the employment of newcomers” was set up. AFPA offers newly arrived refugees the opportunity to validate their professional skills. Three validation pathways are available depending on the level, experience and background of the candidates:

-the recognition of professional know-how (RSFP) for first level/unskilled activities and jobs;

-the validation by professional competency certificates for jobs accessible through the skill assessment;

-the validation of acquired experience (VAE) of professional skills, usually delivered for standard jobs within the certification system (see VAE practice).

Officers of the AFPA – Agence nationale pour la formation professionnelle des adultes (National Agency for Adult Vocational Training) follow constantly the refugees involved in the project. The training is composed of an initial French language course (200hrs), a professional French language course and a phase aiming at the preparation to the employment (400hrs). Subsequently, the beneficiaries, together with AFPA professionals, start a stage period and , after 450hrs, could sign a contract. The last two phases of the project foresee two further types of guidance: the “administrative and social guidance” (regarding health, mobility, bureaucracy) and the “integration guidance” (regarding country values, living together, etc.).

At the end of the project, in 2018, 80% of the beneficiaries obtained a French language certificate, 86% a professional certificate and 61% could eventually find a job.