i.PEICC is an organisation dedicated to popular education, created in 2008, affiliated to the national union Peuple et Culture (created in 1945).  It employs 9 persons and welcomes 5 volunteers and regular interns. Our aim is to promote social integration and to fight against all forms of inequalities and exclusion. Its main fields of interventions are:

  • volunteering and European exchanges,
  • training of facilitators and youth workers,
  • non-formal education and continuing education of  adults and young people,
  • cultural and intercultural actions such as artistic workshops,
  • promotion of active European citizenship.

The association is located in a disadvantaged area called La Paillade, 7km away from the city center of Montpellier and is approved by ministries: Youth and Sports, National Education.

What is the profile of NEETs in your area?

In 2016 in France, 17,19% of the people aged 15 to 29 were considered as Neets. They are not in education, not in a training and not employed. Among them, we can find many early schools leavers/people with no diploma. People with migrant background, people living in rural areas and people from a disadvantaged social background are also overrepresented among Neets.

i.PEICC works mainly with youngsters living in disadvantaged areas, who are unemployed and early school leavers.

 

 

Who is working with NEETs at i.PEICC?

  • All our activities are opened to Neets, which means that each employee of i.PEICC is working with Neets.
  • We work directly in the street and in our offices with people with fewer opportunities: we help them to create their own projects, we organize artistic and cultural workshops, European projects, we offer sport activities…
  • Most of the people working in i.PEICC are professional youth workers, trainers and facilitators

How do we involve NEETs in our projects?

  • Either we directly meet them in our neighborhood,
  • or they find us through our website / social networks
  • or they are sent by local partners : “missions locales” and youth organizations mainly

We give them access to all our activities

Which mobility projects do we offer for NEETs? 

  • EVS projects all over Europe
  • Youth Exchanges
  • Franco-German projects

How do we prepare NEETs before mobility projects? 

 

i.PEICC provides a collective and an individual preparation for NEETS:

Collective preparation: i.PEICC organizes each month an informative meeting about European projects. The aim is to give general information about Erasmus+ and specific information about EVS and Youth Exchanges. Youngsters interested by mobility projects are then invited to join the meeting between formers and futures volunteers organized regularly in our office.

Individual preparation: i.PEICC professional youth workers help NEETs to reflect on their competencies, on their learning objectives ; to find appropriate projects, to deal with intercultural choc… We also help them to create their CVs and to write motivation letters.

Which are the difficulties while working with NEETs?

  • Time: it is complicated to keep NEETs involved in a long-term process.
  • Meetings: it’s complicated to make them come – and not forget the appointments
  • A lot of them are early school leavers and have no competences in foreign languages. This is one of the main reason explaining why it is hard to involve NEETs in mobility projects.
  • Economical difficulties: NEETs are often looking for activities that are paid and this is not what our organization is offering.
  • Social difficulties: problem with being in a group, aggressive behavior, problems to express themselves properly, drugs issues…
  • Difficulties for them to highlight the competencies gained through non-formal education.
  • Lack of recognition of non-formal education in the world of work.