Coaching 60 French early school leavers

Again Act Against Exclusion Foundation organized for pupils, a privileged meeting with professionals from all walks.

"I would be catering", "I want to work with children", "I want to deal with computer in the future", "I decided to be an accountant" ... They almost all have a clear idea of their future profession, the several hundred students who participate in the Forum of internships, February 19, at Sup de Co, Business School, Montpellier.

In the auditorium dedicated to the consultation of bank placements, there reigns a calm and concentration unusual for anyone who knows the liveliness of youth group. Behind every computer, a student with an adult applies to find the internship that best suits their professional project and to apply online.

A total of 74 internships are offered by some forty companies . Catering trade, information technology management, through logistics, industries are almost all represented, as well as firm size (small offices, and large groups, such as Dell and Orange) .

It is a joint initiative of FACE Hérault and its two main partners on the actions School, Dell and Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier Business School, which is at the origin of this first internships Forum. The main objective was to provide a wide range of courses to junior high students enrolled in what we called in France "Living in sensitive urban area", while involving the use of digital tools.

In addition, various workshops (how to succeed his internship, his job interview or how to build a professional project ...) allowed students to share, either individually or in small groups with officials or employees of companies and compare their representation of the world of work with reality. These workshops were led by seven member companies of FACE Hérault, while six employees of Dell framed digital workshops (including one on the use of social networks). A workshop video, made by Sup de Co students, created the video resume of a dozen student volunteers.

Finally, to expand the sources of information, the organizers had also planned a pole orientation and Crafts, with the presence of professional Federations.

"Give priority to guidance, develop the use of IT, strengthening the links between schools and business are three of our top priorities," said Jean-Louis Clerc, Inspector of National Education, in its inaugural speech. "This forum is a perfect fit with the objectives of the Rectorship." In total, thirty professionals, with an additional ten employees of FACE Hérault, have contributed to this forum. Due to this high rate of coaching, junior high students have benefited an almost personalized coaching.

Links:

• http://www.face-herault.org/ecole/106-tremplin-troisieme/942-forum-de-stages-une-premiere-reussie.html

Last 15 and 16 November, Junior High last grade, from 4 cities of Seine-Saint-Deniswer welcomed to NEOForum, organized by the club face of Seine-Saint-Denis. They met with representatives of companies likely to receive an internship or apprenticeship.

"The students we met were very interested in our activities, they asked many questions and presented themselves very seriously. We felt they were making efforts to fight against their shyness, "say representatives of Mondial Assistance, a company that participated in Néoforum held by the Campus Fonderie de l'Image, Bagnolet.
 

FACE Seine-Saint-Denis, once again innovate by creating and organizing special operation to provoque the meeting of companies with last grade Junior High. Most of participants are students encountering difficulties in school. FACE and companies partners are well aware that meet with the real economic world can be critical for young, facing drop out problems.

"It's difficult who are ready to have a cordial conversation with young people. All alone, I cannot do it. What's great about this forum is that companies are there. And people are available to us, "said Kevin, a junior high student of  college Gustave Courbet, Romainville.

Linking young people seeking apprenticeships or internships and companies interested is precisely the objective of the national program "Face at school." "We prepare students from last grade of junior high to explore the world of professional ways.

The organization of this forum is a concrete action that we promote, whe build bridges between two world that never meet. In addition, we regularly in classes attended by leaders or business associates. Finally, we created two years ago a network of interactive exchanges between junior high and business : Facelink (www.tremplin3eme.org), "says Claire Etien, director of the club face of Seine-Saint-Denis.

Twenty companies and several government agencies participated in Néoforum 2012: Dell, GDF-Suez, GRDF, Derichebourg Bred, Sof Architects, Mondial Assistance, the General Council of Seine-Saint Denis, etc.. Something for almost everyone. "I want to work in the restaurant but I can change my mind, you never know," said Bryan, student in Junior High Gustave Courbet. He toured the forum and even met with the representative of Anciel company of trading stones. "Diamantaire is tempting! But I think I prefer to buy rather than to sell diamonds, "jokes adolescents.
Mr. Bruno Lotti, Deputy Mayor in charge of economic development, came to encourage  students. "Often discredited, the first junior high internships are nevertheless crucial. For students, this is their first contact with the world of business, its codes and rules. That is why the City of Romainville, has partnered with Néoforum. We now wish to encourage companies to settle at this time in our town to join the club face. And thus expand training opportunities for young Romainvillois, "says Mr. Lotti.

Thank you to all the companies that have played the game so well and have been able to meet students, appointment is made for next year!

Links:

• Neoforum 2012

First and foremost, I would like to thank again the many people who helped us win the Global Giving Challenge in April. THANK YOU!

This operation was a real challenge for the FACE team and we are very proud to have been able to convince you to support us on a particularly difficult subject to treat: young dropouts from the school system.

What do we mean by school drop-outs?

In France, the latest figures from the Ministry of Education, report of 254,000 young people over 16 years out of school between June 2010 and March 2011. And this figure already catastrophic only grows.
School drop-out is a complex phenomenon involving a multiplicity of causes and beyond the purely academic. Thus, social environments, individual psychological factors, institutional factors, school failure, the relationship to school, to learning and for tasks at school, relationship with teachers, family and child social skills, self-esteem, come into interaction.

Departments of the Hérault and the Seine-Saint-Denis, for which we decided to create the program "Re-Connected Junior Camp" are among the departments most affected by this phenomenon in France - about 8,000 students are concerned in Hérault and 10,000 for the Seine-Saint-Denis.

The measures proposed

Inspired by a Green Paper on Youth and the Senate proposal, the plan "Action for Youth", raise the fight against student dropout rates at a national priority.

Several associations, including the Foundation Act against the Exclusion, decided to take control of the problem /(to seize the problem) and brainstorm solutions to propose to these young people to reintegrate them into a process of training (/formation) and provide them (/enable them to consider) a true professional future.

 I'm not going to list the various measures announced, which are for the most part quite relevant and show the will of all actors (institutional and academic) to establish sustainable mechanisms to reduce output without qualifications. Besides, several devices allow to see and confirm two trends:

1. The decline of youth identified without training or insertion solution

2. The stability of students supported "Coaching employability" actions

Innovation in education

When we learned that we had the opportunity to put online a project on GlobalGiving platform, it is naturally that we planned to look on school drop-out.

But what could we provide, stronger than what already exists?

How bind, our particularity of social business club, already very invested in our “classic” actions with job seekers and students, with institutional and academic partners?

It’s while looking, one evening, the TED London presentation of  Charles Leadbeater*, that I realized that we could take example on  what is done in innovative education in the poorest parts of the world.

Charles Leadbeater went looking for radical new forms of education -- and found them in the slums of Rio and Kibera, where some of the world's poorest kids are finding transformative new ways to learn. And this informal, disruptive new kind of school, he says, is what all schools need to become.

Then you tell me, that I exaggerate, trying to compare the situations of life of the favelas in Rio or the poorest neighborhoods of India and Africa, with cities of the two departments French we are concerned with. And yet, in France, of course, French Republican education is free of charge and moreover mandatory, but the figures speak for themselves! France faces a school failure rate in some of its departments that is catastrophic.

Remember, 254.000 young people left school system between June 2010 and March 2011

We have so much to learn from experiments that are done in developing countries to combat exclusion in Western countries.

Re-Connected Junior Camp

The FACE Foundation is committed for more than 10 years with many schools across France, through its local clubs. We work specifically to prevent any risk of exclusion of young people from 16 years old, from the education system.  Force was clear that this position is no longer enough to stem the important flow of young dropouts that are identified each year.

By creating the "Re – Connected Junior Camp", we opted to focus on innovation and new technologies to help and support young school leavers. Based on the observation that innovation, creativity, or a radically different look on the school - as have done Charles Leadbeater - can happen and sometimes even very often, to prove himself. It is possible, by relying on innovative and alternative solutions to imagine new educational pathways, which have nothing to do with the conventional route.

We have already succeeded in convincing the professors and the teaching teams of six towns of Seine-Saint-Denis, to experience this new approach.

I am very pleased to announce that through your first donations, we will start the program "Re – Connected Junior Camp" earlier than expected.

In the summer and I certainly intend to make you a return, we will offer to 10 young people identified as dropouts and out of any education or training system, to follow a learning path helped with new technologies and dedicated companies partners.

This first group of 10 juniors re-connected will be sponsored by a company and will benefit upgraded workshops in French and mathematics. Along with this, they will be seen individually, to identify with them their potential. Each young person will then be supported by a corporate sponsor whose business sector pleases to the kid. Sponsor that will show to his/her godchild the jobs of his company and help him/her to imagine the training path he/her might start if he/her wishes to insert in the chosen sector.

In my next report, I will describe you the workshops will follow these first 10 juniors re-connected, photos to show!

Again many thanks for your support and your commitment to us, but this is not completed, all funds are not yet collected. If we want to achieve our goal of 60 junior re-connected, we still owe. Talk around you, raise your entourage, personal or professional to our program! We need your help more than ever and I know that we can count on you!

Thank you and talk to you very soon!

PS: If you want even more detail, or if you simply want to share with us a similar experience, feel free to call me. Salwa

*A researcher at the London think tank Demos, Charles Leadbeater was early to notice the rise of "amateur innovation" -- great ideas from outside the traditional walls, from people who suddenly have the tools to collaborate, innovate and make their expertise known.