We partner initiatives carried out by IMS-Entreprendre pour la Cité's Employment and Diversity Center and by Association pour Faciliter l'Insertion Professionnelle des Jeunes Diplômés (AFIJ), which helps young people find their first jobs.

We forward job openings requiring two to five years of post-secondary education to our partner associations, which match them with possible applicants. We also participate in Employment Diversity job fairs held specifically to facilitate face-to-face meetings with young minority graduates. 

We are also involved in the work of three associations, Nos Quartiers Ont des Talents, which covers the Greater Paris region, Proxité, which focuses on Saint-Denis and Nanterre in the Paris region, and Frateli, which is active in a number of French regions. They help young graduates from disadvantaged neighbourhoods find jobs or offer support while they study at France's elite universities. Company mentors coach young people looking for jobs by helping them draw up their résumés, prepare for interviews and tap into networks.

In addition, Total signed France's Business Charter for Equal Opportunity in Education in 2006. This French government initiative aims to encourage collaboration between the Ministry of Education and businesses, to familiarize students from low-income neighbourhoods with the world of work. As part of our efforts in support of the charter, we have signed partnership agreements to facilitate the adjustment and success of middle and high school students.

As part of the Plan Espoir Banlieues introduced by the French government, we hired 427 youths under the age of 26 and 223 people over 26 from designated disadvantaged neighbourhoods in 2008, in partnership with ANPE, France's public employment agency.

A pilot program in four high schools

To help high school students, Total is participating in a pilot program at four high schools in the Seine-Saint-Denis department north of Paris that was initiated by Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris. The pilot has spurred us to create innovative projects such as employee mentoring of high school students, the teaching of classes by Total managers and invitations to teachers to participate in customized training alongside Total managers.

A partnership with middle-schools

For middle school students, Total has been a partner of Fondation Télémaque since early 2007. Under the aegis of the Fondation de France and with the agreement of France's Ministry of Education, this association helps partner businesses match interested employees with disadvantaged middle-school students, to act as their coaches and mentors. The students selected are assigned two mentors and receive financial support in the form of merit grants. Employee volunteers work with a school resource person to help students broaden their horizons and plan their personal goals and careers.

" La clé des champs "

In early 2008, the Total Foundation and Total Refining & Marketing's Central Works Council teamed up with the Versailles school board on a corporate social philanthropy project dubbed La Clé des Champs. Developed jointly by employee representatives and Total's senior management, the initiative allows schoolchildren from targeted school districts to use three vacation camps managed by the Central Works Council, except during school holidays. In 2008, 800 primary schoolchildren from the Paris region attended camps in southwestern and central France and in Brittany under the La Clé des Champs initiative, for a total of nearly 3,000 children over three years.