The Civic Service is a Good Opportunity for the Young in France
Once rioters attacking the Bastille fortress during the French Revolution, the French now live in a peaceful country with a professional army.
Today, civic service (Service civique) in France is a voluntary service that has been
managed by the French government since 2010 replacing the civil voluntary
service that had already replaced the national conscription dating from the
French Revolution.
The young are offered voluntary work opportunities and a first work experience in
national organizations for the homeless (associations pour les sans-abris) or
in the fire brigades (les pompiers).
What is more, they are paid about 500 € a month. This first experience is usually
considered as a key element in a cv since most of the young leaving the French
school system do not have any work experience at all.
The Civic Service Can Be a First Work Experience for the Young in France
This experience is a great opportunity to use one’s personal skills Some young
people who are interested in travelling abroad can go from 6 to 24 months to a
foreign country to work for a French company .
They can volunteer for a local community in a developing country or for a French
administrative organization like the Alliance française of the French embassy.
No doubt, the French Civic service is also an attempt of Hollande’s and Sarkozy’s
governments to contribute to the labor prospects for the young.
With a lack of growth in France and a lack of private or public investment in the French
economy,
“the deficit needs to be reduced, though the budget cutting is coming a little bit later”, says journalist Mark Deen at Bloomberg News.
At the same time, the young in France seem to be more interested in civil servant jobs as they are jobs for life. However, vice president of the National Financial Commisssion Valerie Rabaut thinks that many young people share the spirit of entrepreneurship in France.
Though the young could see the civil servant jobs as a guarantee for life, they are less and less interested in the hard working conditions of the police or the teaching jobs.
So, could we consider the civic service and the civil servant jobs as the road to the French growth?
See the debate on France 24
