Alstom supports sustainable employment of young people in France

Alstom has given its support to a campaign by the Association Française des Entreprises Privées (AFEP) to promote training and jobs for young people by signing the Jeunes et Entreprises (Youth & Business) partnership in Paris on Thursday, 21 March, 2013, in presence of the French labour minister, Michel Sapin.

This signature follows other initiatives launched by the Group as part of the Plan Espoir Banlieues in 2008 and the Engagement National des Entreprises pour lEmploi dans les Quartiers Prioritaires de la Politique de la Ville in 2012.

Through its partnership with AFEP, Alstom is committed to hiring more young people on work-study schemes through apprenticeships or contracts leading to qualifications while promoting integration through mentoring programmes with company employees. Over a third of apprentices trained by Alstom join the Group. Alstom plans to offer 700 apprenticeships in 2013.

With 500 internships in 2013, the Company is committed to better informing young people about its business activities by fostering closer ties with schools and universities. As part of a partnership with the Institut de lEntreprise, Alstom intends to provide a placement programme for economics teachers. The Group will continue to play an active part in various career guidance conferences and forums through an internal network of ambassadors and to open up its plants to introductory visits for vocational purposes.

On a local level, Alstom encourages and supports the involvement of its sites in youth employment schemes. The Alstom Power activity of service and maintenance for power plants, based in La Courneuve, just outside Paris has taken on nearly 60 young people a year since 2008 through recruitment, work-study programmes and placements. The Reichshoffen plant, in north-eastern France, which specialises in manufacturing regional trains, recently set up a new apprenticeship scheme for railway fitters that will provide opportunities for between eight and ten apprentices a year over a five-year period.   

Alstom has a long-standing proactive commitment in training and employing young people. The Groups sites are a driving force for these initiatives, which allow them to meet their needs while taking into account the individual requirements of their specific catchment area, explains Nicolas Jacqmin, VP HR for Alstom in France.

In France, Alstom recruits between 20% and 25% of applicants under the age of 26 as engineers, executives, operators (fitters, welders and lathe/milling machine operators,) and technicians (at design offices,). This long-term investment gives Alstom the scope to train young people in the complex technical jobs required for power and transport infrastructure projects while drawing on a segment of the population that is in tune with the sustainable development issues addressed by rail transport and renewable energy.

Alstom employs more than 18,000 people in France and has 21 sites throughout the country.

Press Contacts 
Emmanuelle Châtelain, Isabelle Tourancheau - Tel +33 1 41 49 37 38 /39 95

emmanuelle.chatelain@chq.alstom.com, isabelle.tourancheau@chq.alstom.com