Since Gymglish was founded in 2004, our Social Impact program strives to offer effective and accessible digital education to learners all over the world.
Today, we highlight the Apprentis d’Auteuil Foundation, a group that aims to support vulnerable children, teenagers and families. Zoé Pons, Project Manager for Apprentis d’Auteuil in Marseille, shares with us the many professional and social challenges young people must face today.
Hello Zoé! Could you describe your foundation?
Hello! The Apprentis d’Auteuil Foundation was created 150 years ago and supports over 27,000 young people every year – from toddlers to adults – as well as families in more than 200 establishments in France. Our main goal is to protect, guide and mentor disadvantaged youth.
We offer parental training as well as access to daycare, nurseries and social childcare centres. We have also created a new hub dedicated to employment integration. Our Marseille satellite office serves as a business incubator and we’re currently testing several employment integration plans, including the “+2 program”.
What is the aim of this program?
The +2 program was launched in September 2019 and addresses the difficulties young people in the service sector face when entering the labor market. We give priority to high school graduates from vocational programs and offer them face-to-face training, as well as digital and work-based training programs, mainly via apprenticeship contracts.
The young people we support are often disheartened by today’s challenging labor market. They devote time and energy in the hope of graduating, and once they have, they aren’t even sure they will land a job in line with their career path. Most companies require a two-year degree minimum, which can be challenging for some. In that sense, apprenticeship contracts are gateways to securing a permanent job.
What training needs have you identified for the people you support?
Around the Marseille region, most young people require business, customer support and digital training. We have set up partnerships with a business and an engineering school to meet those needs, and we hope this will enable us to offer training that promotes entrepreneurship and business development down the line.
Our young beneficiaries who are looking to work in business have shown strong enthusiasm to improve their written French; we have also identified English training needs for those wanting to pursue digital careers.
How does Gymglish meet your beneficiaries’ needs?
Since we have partnered with Gymglish, 60 young people we support currently benefit from your online written French lessons Frantastique Ortho, and your English course Gymglish. We feel that the Blended Learning approach (combining on-site training and distance learning) works very well. As a matter of fact, our teachers have fully integrated Gymglish in their teaching program, and student participation rates are now factored into overall grades.
Many of our beneficiaries are testing elearning solutions for the very first time. Participation and motivation in education remain a major challenge that Gymglish has managed to address perfectly. The main asset of these courses is that lessons are short and can be completed anywhere and at any time. Teachers are there to support those who are struggling or lacking motivation.
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