Catherine Ferrant
Vice President, Diversity and Accountability

Interview with Catherine Ferrant – Total Supports Equal Opportunity for Disadvantaged French Youth

Total is helping to improve equal opportunity in France with a number of initiatives aimed at young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. In 2008, Catherine Ferrant, Vice President, Diversity and Accountability, talked to us about this corporate commitment.

Total has announced a new corporate philanthropy initiative called La Clé des Champs, designed for primary schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Could you tell us more about it?

La Clé des Champs is a joint initiative by the Total Corporate Foundation, Refining & Marketing’s Central Works Council and the Versailles School District. It will enable participating schools to use three vacation centers managed by the Central Works Council, which are usually reserved for children of Total employees. In 2008, 400 to 500 schoolchildren from disadvantaged schools in the Versailles School District will go be able to go to centers in Brittany, Central France and the Alps.

What else is Total doing to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds?

We have so many programs that I can’t mention them all here. Several long-standing initiatives are designed to help bring disadvantaged young people into the workforce. Today, we’re expanding our presence further upstream in partnership with other educational stakeholders.
For the past year, for example, more than 60 employees have been tutoring high school students as part of a Télémaque Foundation program. In this way, they are helping to break down social and cultural barriers. And we’re trying to get employees even more involved.
In another innovative project, we’re participating in the experimental affirmative action program being deployed by the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris to encourage enrolment from high schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods in the northern Paris suburbs. Here too, the project is driven by a commitment to outreach and bridge-building between the academic world and business with the same objective: giving every student, regardless of social background, the opportunities and resources he or she needs to succeed.

Why is Total so involved in these programs?

To demonstrate our values by supporting our host communities and getting to know more about people who are our neighbors, our customers and our partners. In France, social origin has a major impact on a student’s academic track and chances of getting a job. We feel that we rightly have to get involved, with other industries, if we want to encourage more equal opportunity and make sure we don’t miss talent we can use, simply between we’re too narrow-minded to see it.