The Mobilitas family group – through its international moving brand AGS – has been supporting young people in their professional lives for many years. On the strength of this experience, every year the company is committed to recruiting young people to work as international corporate volunteers (V.I.E) alongside Business France. And not even the current health crisis can hold it back. Quite the contrary, the group has hired 30 V.I.Es in 2020.
And with good reason: the new generations are the future, bringing new ideas and a different outlook. They enable companies to modernise and be at the forefront of innovation.
The family group has understood this since its creation and has always opted for a dynamic and proactive policy in favour of international corporate volunteering (V.I.E) in order to offer young people from all over the world an opportunity. In 2020, the group even announced the recruitment of 30 V.I.Es.
The scheme, which has replaced voluntary national service in the French military, enables young people between 18 and 28 years old to carry out their first paid activity in a French company based abroad.
Creating French know-how
In total, nearly 350 graduates have already taken advantage of the programme, which allows them to spend 18-24 months abroad, spending their first work experience benefitting from a quality know-how in a large French group. During their V.I.E, they enjoy comfortable financial and living conditions over a reasonable commitment period. The scheme also offers a level of responsibility that has no equivalent in France with equal skills.
For Cédric Castro, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Mobilitas Group, “the V.I.E system allows us to ‘create French know-how’ since some V.I.E employees continue their careers within the company – some are now directors of subsidiaries, for example.”
The profile of V.I.E candidates varies from young graduates from logistics or transport backgrounds and business school graduates, to new graduates in marketing, law and finance, and experienced people under the age of 28. All of them are driven by the desire to discover a different country, other ways of working, and activities that are different from those offered in France. The experience is often a springboard to international careers and is a rare opportunity for personal development.
Legal flexibility during the crisis
But the global health crisis of 2020 put a stop to the V.I.E system. Due to a lack of international trade, companies were less willing to recruit through the programme.
But this was without counting on the willingness of Business France and AGS. Business France, for its part, succeeded in getting the authorities to allow V.I.E recruits to first spend a six-month immersion period in France before being allowed to go abroad.
The flexibility of this arrangement allows companies to adapt the mission to their needs – whether abroad or, depending on the health conditions in the foreign country, using the young person’s resources in France. “Young people can therefore start a V.I.E assignment in the company in France, be trained for several months, be integrated into the group before being able to go to the country of assignment when possible,” says Michel Bauza, V.I.E Director at Business France.
Recruitment on the rise at AGS in 2020
The AGS Mobilitas family group, with its international DNA, did not hesitate to take advantage of this flexibility to support young people. In May, the group announced the recruitment of 30 V.I.E employees, compared to a dozen in normal times. All of them were trained in France from July-December, where they participated in the international revival of the French economy. They will now be deployed abroad from January 2021 to June 2022.
“This very strong recruitment message is intended to unite many other companies and to restart the V.I.E and make it as strong as it was before the health crisis,” emphasises Cédric Castro. “Let’s protect the present to ensure the future.”