France’s Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF) successfully pilots refugee employment access schemes

Since 2017, the Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF), member of BusinessEurope, conducted experiments on employment access for three different types of refugees: highly qualified workers, unskilled workers, and unaccompanied minors.

The experiment including highly-qualified refugees demonstrated a potential to rapidly increase participants’ employability through about 400 hours of training, including on soft skills and through business immersion experiences. With 80% of the participants obtaining employment contracts at the end of the initiative, the experiment was consider a success and will be extended to other sectors. For unaccompanied minors, MEDEF has developed an ‘insertion path’. Minors reside within apprentice training centres offering accommodation, education and social support, as well as professional training. Although the initial results have been encouraging, there are numerous of barriers, including a lack of structured exchanges between actors at national and departmental levels, and problem of residence entitlements when the minors come of age.

See more about MEDEF’s support for refugees’ labour market integration.