Jobtown Rennes: action plan to
facilitate the professional
insertion of individuals from
priority neighbourhoods
leaving further education
Kamila Kourilova, project officer
Morgane Le Goff and Nathalie Wright,
Jobtown Rennes Métropole coordination – MEIF
(Employment, Insertion and Training Centre)
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Jobtown: an exchange project to
revitalize local practices facilitating
youth employment
Jobtown is part of the URBACT 2 programme, and has the following aims:

Facilitating an integrated approach to Urban Policies, improving joint action on a local level,
in the short term and without additional resources through a partnership working group
bringing together employment, training, and youth stakeholders as well as employers and
young people themselves. Some sixty participants contributed to the working group.

Encouraging sustainable urban development by contributing recommendations for the new
‘city contract’ (Contrat de Ville) that may include seeking new resources.
Rennes Métropole is involved in two ways in this exchange programme, between June 2013 and
June 2015:
Locally, Rennes Métropole’s objective for the Jobtown partnership working group is to improve the
professional insertion of young graduates from priority neighbourhoods as they leave further
education.
At the European level, Rennes Métropole is taking part in the five thematic transnational seminars to
discuss the related issues: the effectiveness of partner-based co-operation, education / training, local
forward planning for skills and employment (‘GPECT’), entrepreneurship, and the third-sector
economy. Eleven different territories (towns, neighbourhoods and urban districts) are involved,
located in nine countries: Italy, Portugal, Spain, Cyprus, Hungary, Poland, the UK, France and
Germany.
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Aiming to focus on the professional
insertion of young graduates from
priority neighbourhoods
Starting points:
- The 18-24 age bracket accounts for one quarter of the population of Rennes; 15% of them live in
neighbourhoods designated in city policy as priority areas – some 8,000 young people in all.
- The City of Rennes has made commitments in a ‘Youth Pact’ (Pacte Jeunesse)
- Young people in Ille-et-Vilaine (the administrative department in which Rennes is located) are
particularly affected by rising unemployment, whatever their level of education. In 2012, the
unemployment rate for the most highly-qualified young people was also increasing.
- Young people from migrant backgrounds take longer to get a stable job; non-profit associations
working in local districts highlight an ongoing problem of racial discrimination.
- Increasing numbers of young graduates are seeking the assistance of the Mission Locale agency,
despite not being directly within its remit (having successfully completed at least 2 years’ further
education).
- Even so, young graduates appear to be less visible in the public arena, and are isolated when it
comes to dealing with their employment issues.
- Many different players are involved in the insertion of young graduates: public-sector employment
agencies, university information and careers departments, dedicated associations (e.g. AFI, APEC,
Intermède, etc.), community centres, mass education associations, private and public-sector
employers, etc. Some of them are concerned that their facilities are underused by young people.
In the light of the above, Rennes Métropole’s Employment, Insertion and Training Department, in
liaison with the Maison de l’Emploi job centre, has sought to devote particular attention to the
circumstances of young people who have studied in higher education.
However, working alongside the different partners has resulted in a fresh calling into question of the
transition processes for young people between secondary education and the world of employment,
independently of access to higher education. This opportunity for critical distance with respect to the
initial focus made it possible to strategize and come up with an action plan designed to benefit all
young people in the neighbourhoods in question.
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Intermediate objectives
Initial action
Actions
June 2013 to June 2015: a roadmap with
3 key points
Capitalize
existing first job schemes +
current and past
experiments.
Improve existing
offer clarity and/or
adjust it
Understand
young people’s
expectations and
approaches (quality survey
of some twenty young
people)
Rebuild trust between
young people and
institutions /
developing their
involvement
Final objectives
Objectif
final
Increase the use of
existing schemes and
resources
Connect; improve joint
action
stakeholders involved with
youth, employment
insertion, higher education
and employers
Help players get to know
one another in order to
develop partnerships
Develop employment
opportunities
Encourage
professional insertion and
access to the first job
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1- Helping partners in the working
group to get to know one another
(Urbact Local Support Group):
The principle here has been to bring together a group of five types of stakeholder for the entirety of
the project:
young graduates
education / higher
education
employers
employment /
insertion
intermediaries
neighbourhood
associations
There have been a large number of small-group work meetings, interspersed with keynote meetings
gathering a larger number of partners. Our thanks go to all those who have contributed to strategic
thinking and the projects:
Laurence Arenou – ‘Contrat de Ville’ CITY CONTRACT, Emmanuelle Auger – AFEV, Zahra Bertin
Versigny – INTERMEDE, Adeline Bertrand – a young graduate transitioning from studies to
employment, Nelly Billet – CCAS, Véronique Deborde – MISSION LOCALE, Didier Buet – DDJSCS,
Christelle Champigny – E.N.I., Sabrina Chantepie – UE 35, Louise Marie Chevalier – BRITTANY
REGION, Luc Codet – POLE EMPLOI, Anne Coldefy – CODESPAR, Mathieu Demare – UNISCITE, Tangi
de Rochefort – BRITTANY REGION, Christel Demullenheim Morin – RENNES CITY COUNCIL, Pierre de
Person – CERCLE PAUL BERT, Marion Dequeu – a young graduate transitioning from studies to
employment, Coline Dhaussy – a young graduate transitioning from studies to employment, Samuel
Dubois – RENNES METROPOLE, Muriel Gantier – POLE EMPLOI, Erwan Gaudin – CITESLAB, Régine
Gerard – CCAS, Édith GERMAIN – MAISON DE SUEDE, Guillaume Gessen – MISSION LOCALE, Marc
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Gimonet – RENNES 2 UNIVERSITY, Hélène Godet – CPB Blosne, Anne Gouville – POLE EMPLOI, Gérard
Grasse – ASCAPE, Xavier Joinaie – DIRECCTE, David Josse – METRO, Philippe Jourdan – MISSION
LOCALE, Kamila Kourilova – RENNES METROPOLE, Mustapha Laabid – FACE, Khalid Lahssak – ESPACE
ET LUMIERES, Philippe Le Saux – APRAS, Cécile Leconte – SOIE Rennes 1, Gwenaël Ledan – MAIF,
Christele Lederff – POLE EMPLOI, Morgane Le Goff – MEIF, Laura Leguen – AFEV, Ronan Lucas –
MISSION LOCALE, Christine Mahave – AIGUILLON CONSTRUCTION, Laurence Marchand – POLE
EMPLOI, Marjorie Le Mene – CERCLE PAUL BERT, Rozenn Merrien – APRAS, Maria-Gaëlle Monnier –
ADIE CréaJeunes, Valérie Morel – CRIJ, Vincent Morfoisse – RENNES CITY COUNCIL, Monfang Mve
Mengome – Objectif Concours (a young graduate transitioning from studies to employment), Marie
Hélène Negri – CARREFOUR 18, Chantal Parent – RENNES CITY COUNCIL, Nicolas Parquic – DDJSCS,
Claire Paugam – JTM, Marie Pineau – DIRECCTE, Régine Plourdeau – MISSION LOCALE, Bertrand
Poences – SEA35 LE RELAIS, Irma Poulard – APRAS, Laure Prima – EXPLORATOIRE DES METIERS,
Alexandra Pruvost – FACULTE DES METIERS, Sandra Raseloued – Objectif Concours (a young graduate
transitioning from studies to employment), Christophe Renzaho – CR INFORMATICS (a young
entrepreneur), Céline Rigourd – CODESPAR, Tiphaine Riou – RENNES METROPOLE, Nicolas Robinault
– ARCHIPEL HABITAT, Sandrine Rousselin, SUIOP RENNES 2, Hafssa Saoud – a young graduate
transitioning from studies to employment, Thierry Stanquic – DIRECCTE, Jérôme Tchouonmou – a
young graduate transitioning from studies to employment, Laëtitia Thebault – SUIOP Rennes 2,
Françoise Tyrant – RENNES METROPOLE, Nathalie Wright – RENNES METROPOLE, Antoine Yon –
TANDEM, Céline Ziwes – RENNES METROPOLE
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2- Capitalizing and clarifying local
resources
There is a wide variety of experimentation, but the way schemes are run is not always widely known
and there is not enough capitalization.
The Rennes area is home to many different schemes and resources that contribute to the social and
professional insertion of young people. Some of them are quite specific (e.g. Mission Locale) whilst
others are aimed at a broader public (e.g. Pôle Emploi). For others, only part of their mission relates
to professional insertion (e.g. the information provided by the Centre Régional d’Information
Jeunesse regional youth information centre and resource library).
Together, the working group partners have identified the following issues:




The role of each scheme is not clearly perceived by young people.
Sectors of intervention are partitioned by funding systems
Individuals’ problems are dealt with piecemeal – a holistic approach to the individual is called
for
Young people see the schemes as being complicated: complex procedures?
In addition to this issue of clarifying locally available resources, there is an impression that many
young people distrust institutions and do not wish to use these resources.
This point of the roadmap has given rise to two projects in the action plan (see the ‘proposals’
section).
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3- Learning more about young people
transitioning from studies to
employment
Comments by the employment/insertion, youth, training/education partners around the table at the
first Jobtown meeting on May 28, 2013 included the following:
-
-
Young people (particularly young graduates from priority districts in Rennes) under-use the
local resources available to help them find a job.
This may consist in not using resources (e.g. it is thought only one young person in two
seeking employment is registered with Pôle Emploi) or very occasional use of resources,
running counter to the rationale of a pathway and follow-up from those providing assistance.
This under-use can be explained by a distrust of institutions on the part of some young
people.
It was in this context that a roadmap, including a study, was drawn up. The first challenge was to
answer the questions raised by the partners present:
-
Who are the young graduates or students in higher education in the neighbourhoods? How
do they go about jobseeking?
Where are they? (this question reflected the fact that they are less present in the public
arena than unqualified young people, and so more liable not to be on social workers’ radar).
What are their possible needs and expectations?
How can trust be rebuilt so that they use the resources available to them?
A number of avenues were mentioned for connecting with young people: street interviews,
discussion meetings, etc. The opportunity afforded by the presence of Jobtown project officer Kamila
Kouřilová, with a contract as part of the “Objectif Concours!” scheme, plus discussions with key
individuals, led us to opt for a quality study conducted in-house by the Rennes Métropole
Employment, Insertion and Training Department, based on semi-directive interviews with 19 young
graduates from Rennes transitioning between their studies and the world of work.
Our thanks go to Emmanuelle Auger from AFEV (‘Student Foundation for the City Association’) for
her vision; this helped us prepare our discussions with the young people. Thanks are also due to Irma
Poulard and Philippe Le Saux from APRAS (‘Social Action and Events Association’), who encouraged
us to address the issue in terms of quality, over and above the difficulties with quantifying the
numbers of people concerned in Rennes neighbourhoods.
Our thanks go too to Kamila, who conducted the interviews with patience and perseverance (as well
as transcribing and analysing the content), successfully creating a climate of trust with the
interviewees.
Lastly, our thanks also go to the 19 individuals who were willing to give their time and talk about
their experience.
Morgane Le Goff and Nathalie Wright, Jobtown Rennes Métropole coordination – MEIF
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3- Improving the transition between
studies and the world of work: 5 facets
The proposals expressed by the young people interviewed have been added to
the scope of work identified in the partners’ meetings, and may feed into the
Jobtown action plan. We have therefore decided to classify these proposals on
the basis of five previously established avenues of investigation.
Quality study:
19 young people
Partnership meetings
Proposals
to improve the transition from studies to the world of work
leveraging 3 components:
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social and
economic
environment
personal
development of
young
people
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Action plan proposals
divided into 5 facets:
- career advice and initiation, access to work
placements and student life.
- the role of employers in preventing
discrimination.
- access to rights and discrimination claims.
- building and capitalising on experience.
- young peoples’ relationship with local
resources.
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Existing action
that can be
developed
Tested projects
without
additional
resources
Needs not
covered, require
funding
Career advice and initiation, access to work
placements and student life
The ‘city contract’: an institutional scheme to improve joint action.
The new ‘city contract’ (Contrat de Ville) is an opportunity to engage its signatories, and partners in
employment, training and national and higher education, to achieve shared goals.
Career initiation and access to Year 10 work placements: one example of a
project that could be further structured and developed.
The search for work placements and career initiation for Year 10 pupils living in the city’s policydesignated ‘priority neighbourhoods’ has been combined in a partnership development between
the national education authorities, FACE and the MEIF ‘Exploratoire des métiers’. Since 2014, the
work by FACE and the Exploratoire at the Binquenais and Hautes Ourmes secondary schools has
been organized as part of the project conducted by the Blosne ‘ZEP’ priority education zone
coordinator since 2013. Private-sector employers belonging to FACE offer work placements, as does
Rennes City Council, for a total of some thirty pupils in all.
An estimation of the needs of pupils with a limited family network could in future form the basis for
a work placement fair for all priority neighbourhoods, on top of initiatives undertaken individually
by the secondary schools in question (in particular through parents’ groups).
Developing apprenticeships to reconcile higher education and employment.
Apprenticeships provide both experience and a professional network, and allow young people
without resources to fund their studies. However, the young people who need to fund their studies
are often those who are the most lacking in networks when it comes to finding an apprenticeship
contract, either because they are the first in their family to enter higher education, or because they
suffer from discrimination due to their background.
Although it was not possible to address the issue of developing apprenticeships in higher education
within Jobtown, it has been suggested that the existing offer should be made clearer for young
people from priority neighbourhoods.
The MEIF apprenticeship working group now includes ‘apprenticeship Wednesdays’ in its forums:
these are specifically dedicated to higher education and help with finding an apprenticeship
contract.
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Developing sponsorship to facilitate access to work placements.
Although relations between businesses and universities have developed a great deal in recent years
through intake sponsorships, new schemes are emerging in favour of students with smaller
networks, and these could be duplicated: 30 Master 1 EEPMO students can be sponsored when
seeking a work placement, by companies belonging to FACE. This initiative came into being in 2013
and even resulted in some apprenticeship contracts for continuing with a second-year Masters
course.
Suggestions from the young people we met
Better ways of reconciling studies and work.
What the young people say is in line with the current preoccupations of CNOUS (France’s national
pupil and student services agency) as it works with employers on the compatibility of employment
with studies. The question of class timetables was also raised.
“I did temping work in an agribusiness factory. But it was very random. They’d call you for one week,
but the week after there would be no work (…). You’re never sure of having a set amount of money
at the end of the month.
I had a full grant but it wasn’t enough.
[Sarah – Master 2 History of Art]
“I wanted to be a research linguist, and then got an opportunity to get a job at CRNS. But then I was
told that I had to choose between work and classes – that I couldn’t do both. So I chose work
because I needed to work. And I didn’t validate all of my classes. I wasn’t very happy about the fact
that they didn’t seem to understand that students need to eat too.”
……”I thought about transferring my dossier to validate what I still needed to do. But in fact Rennes
University is even worse than Nanterre, because Nanterre at least tried to arrange the times. That’s
not the case for Rennes – it’s their times or nothing, so you can’t arrange anything.”
[Elodie – Bachelors in Language Sciences]
Being able to take a break from studies, confirm a project and acquire
experience.
“In France, I find that few students take a year out. So I get the impression that your studies go by
very quickly. You have to decide what you want to do when you’re very young.... so I might actually
prefer to choose my studies later.” (...) “Then from high school onwards, given that there are several
options, you have to decide when you’re only 15. A lot of young people make the wrong choice.”...”In
fact, we have to decide what we’re going to be doing in life later on when we’re still too young. And
sometimes, it’s too early.”
“I did my first-year Masters abroad. When I came back, I didn’t want to go back to university in
Rennes. What’s more, I didn’t know which masters to do. Actually, the first-year Masters was a
general course and it’s in the second-year Masters that you specialize in a particular field.... So I said
to myself that I would take a year out to think about it and get professional experience in social work
at the same time.”
[Camille – currently doing Civilian Service]
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Finding out about more jobs and companies during studies.
“But that can in fact be done through careers advisors at school. Sometimes, when you’re a student,
you think about a job but you don’t really realize what it is, what’s actually involved. At Science-Po
everybody wants to work for the UN and save the world [Laughs].”
[Camille – Master 1 Science-Po, currently doing Civilian Service]
“I think that it would be a really good idea to present the different jobs we could have. For example
for students in psychology, everybody will say they want to be a psychologist. But these students
have various skills sets that could be used in other jobs. They need to be given information about
these different things. Especially people who have specific jobs, so that they can get to know their
skills and have access to other types of jobs.”
[Jérémy – Master 2, Computer imaging engineering]
This idea could be fed into the Résonances project conducted by Rennes 2 University.
See https://resonances.univ-rennes2.fr/
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The role of employers in preventing
discrimination.
Promoting alternative recruitment methods.
Traditional recruitments based on CVs, cover letters and job interviews usually lead to what are
known as ‘mirror’ recruitments, where the employer hires someone who is like them (studies, social
background, language register, etc.). Varying recruitment methods makes it possible to diversify the
profiles recruited and above all, to avoid prejudice and remain focused on the candidate’s aptitudes
and skills. Some large companies carry out extensive forms of recruitment that give an opportunity
to all, using face-to-face meetings at shows, recruitment via video CV and online tests, as well as
Pôle Emploi’s MRS Simulation Recruitment Method. These approaches still need to be promoted to
many employers in public and private-sector, small and medium-sized organizations.
Professional unions and business clubs have a role to play, too, in liaison with all the local partners
of the Rennes Employment, Insertion and Training Centre (Maison de l’Emploi, de l’Insertion et de la
Formation, MEIF).
Developing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and encouraging
commitment on the part of employers.
Current major worksites in Rennes such as the high-speed rail line and the second metro line have
allowed local government to introduce social responsibility clauses into the relevant public
procurement contracts. In the same way, CSR clauses that encourage anti-discrimination measures
could be included: training staff to combat discrimination and promote gender equality, publishing
job offers, recruiting apprentices, hosting trainees on work placements, etc.
These undertakings by employers could also be in exchange for public-sector aid to companies.
“lack of experience played a part... and made me call myself into question. You end up thinking your
CV is worthless. There’s a problem. Your profile doesn’t fit or they’re really not interested in you. I
really called myself into question. I wondered if I really had any value on the job market given my
studies.”
A young man
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Access to rights and discrimination claims.
Suggestions made by the young people we met
Being able to discuss discrimination experienced with others, so that people did not have to cope
with it on their own, was one key need expressed by the young people present at the Jobtown
meeting on January 13, 2014.
Making ‘access to rights’ points more accessible for young people from
priority neighbourhoods
Rennes City Council and the Regional Youth Information Centre (Centre Régional d’Information
Jeunesse, CRIJ) have opened an ‘access to rights’ point. This first-point-of-contact service provides
general advice about housing rights, consumer rights, and so on, and aims to direct people to
specialist organizations; it also constitutes a possible first point of contact to discuss discrimination.
The ‘access to rights’ point can itinerate to neighbourhoods and employment events such as the
‘Apprenticeship Wednesdays’ forum, organized all year round by MEIF.
Raising the profile of avenues for making discrimination claims
Young people suffering from discrimination face a range of options: confiding in a friend or
employment professional, lodging a complaint, approaching the legal rights ombudsman, etc. How
should they react when faced with discrimination? Who should they turn to? They may not know
how to react and professionals are sometimes at a loss to know where to send them. Rennes
Métropole’s mission to combat discrimination has been conducting work with the Ille-et-Vilaine
Access to Rights Committee in order to identify avenues for making complaints and share these with
professionals, neighbourhood associations and residents.
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Building and capitalizing on experience.
Developing familiarity with schemes that help provide experience
“Actually, the first-year Masters was a general course and it’s in the second-year Masters that you
specialize in a particular field.... So I said to myself that I would take a year out to think about it and
get professional experience in social work at the same time.”
[Camille – currently doing Civilian Service]
During discussion of the “Leonardo” grant, paid out by JTM (Jeunes à Travers le Monde), it emerged
that one young man had been unaware of it when looking for a work placement abroad:
“And that’s often the case: there are good initiatives, but no-one knows about them.”
[Hassen – Le Blosne neighbourhood]
These two stories offer a fair summary of what came out of Jobtown discussions with young people
and other partners: civilian service, work placements abroad and summer jobs are not a solution to
the lack of jobs, even though they provide experiences which may contribute to gaining initial
experience, open up further possibilities and boost self-confidence.
The initiative conducted in Rennes in the Maurepas area by Jeunes à travers le Monde and Mission
Locale to develop these experiences abroad are examples of what needs to be organized to make
them visible and accessible to young people from priority neighbourhoods.
Materializing skills inherent in qualifications and derived from informal
experience
“I was trained in a job but... I haven’t been trained to work in this company. Not at all. I’ve been
trained in all the skills that I’ve been able to use in the company, but I haven’t had any training for
actually working in a company.”
[Jérémy – Master 2, Computer imaging engineering]
“Young people don’t know where to turn; they’ve finished their studies and in the end they find
themselves without anything, without any outlook for a future career” (...). “In my case, there really
was a period when I felt left out of society. I had the impression that I no longer had a social life, or
any value. I stopped studying quite a while ago now”... “I really think young people need to be given
a new sense of worth; whether they have qualifications or not, their worth needs to be recognized.
Because I don’t think any of us know where to turn. We all feel abandoned. You get the impression
that there’s no future for you.”
It is not immediately obvious how to materialize the worth of qualifications, volunteer work or an
occasional job and transpose this into skills. Some employers know how to spot the skills of young
people by looking beyond their immediate CV, but these young people no doubt need assistance in
expressing their skills and ensuring the value of their first professional, volunteer or informal
experience is recognized.
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The relationship of young people with local
resources.
Re-examining the assumption that young graduates are self-reliant – and
offering assistance tailored to their needs.
Young graduates may claim to be self-reliant but also complain they feel abandoned. Their feedback
reveals that there is a real gap between their expectations and the assistance on offer, and this
contributes to their distrust of institutions.
For example, MEIF, Mission Locale and Pôle Emploi are thinking about offering other assistance and
mentoring schemes for young people in the Le Blosne neighbourhood in Rennes. From 2015
onwards, Mission Locale will be contributing to an initial drop-in centre, open for half a day once a
fortnight at Espace Ressource Emploi in the Carrefour 18 social centre. In 2014, the Villejean Espace
Ressource Emploi schemes redirected x young people to various assistance organizations.
Support for jobseeking from schools or universities at the end of studies.
“(…) I’d like to see universities offer help, not only in the form of studies, but also help with finding a
job. They could do group sessions... at the University, they are making more and more efforts in this
area but it takes time – to enable access to a career and a job.”
[Elodie – Bachelors in Language Sciences]
“To be honest I found that a lot of things were missing. First and foremost the fact that we can’t
change our surname... But when we do a BTS diploma at a college, or university studies, these
establishments must have a network; they should help us start off in life once we’ve graduated.”
“We get our qualification and then we’re left on our own with nobody to really help us. Who helps
us? Companies don’t need young graduates with no experience. They don’t take us on... it’s
expensive to train us... But if they don’t give us a chance to begin with, we’re in danger of having no
experience at all. I don’t know, perhaps the different schools where we study should have
partnerships with the companies in the region.... Because otherwise, it’s impossible.”
[Leila – SME Management Assistant]
Giving professionals and neighbourhood activists the right information to
point young people in the direction of employment resources
Linked to the previous proposal, and based on the same collation work, the plan now is to inform all
partners in contact with young people from the neighbourhoods that are not specifically working in
the field of employment, so that everybody can make the best possible contribution to
disseminating information and promoting existing resources.
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Capitalizing on local wealth; motivating young people to use existing
resources and schemes
At a very early stage, the Jobtown partners identified the wealth of resources, schemes and
experimentation capacity in the Rennes area. However, young people do not necessarily see the
benefits of using a given scheme, or are unfamiliar with all the possibilities for assistance and
experience. Making the existing resources attractive and making young people want to use them is
now the subject of further strategic thinking by Mission Locale, CRIJ and Rennes Métropole.
2 practical suggestions:
- organizing a meeting forum with young people in Le Blosne / Bréquigny to allow them to make
progress with their projects.
- developing and promoting the CRIJ smartphone app, linked in with social media, to pass on
information about the schemes and resources available.
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Nathalie WRIGHT : [email protected]
Morgane LE GOFF : [email protected]
4 Avenue Henri Fréville
35207 Rennes cedex 2
Tél. : 02 99 86 64 64
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