Airbus brings associations and companies together around diversity

Helping guide young people in their careers and professional development

Airbus, in partnership with three associations – Capital Filles, Passeport Avenir and NQT – is organising a forum focused on social diversity and sponsoring young people from unprivileged areas, on Tuesday 3rd May in Toulouse.

This forum will open the floor to young people who have chosen tutoring to develop themselves and as a way to link the education and corporate worlds. The forum will also show what public-private sector commitment can do to improve the prospects of the future young adults by promoting equal opportunities, gender, culture and profile diversity. The forum will be followed by a ‘market place’ to discuss the best practices already in place with different partners.

Some 300 participants will attend the forum, such as young people from unprivileged and rural areas, their tutors, members of the associations, representatives of companies and institutional stakeholders.

Supporting young people from unprivileged areas is one of the key ways Airbus employees are helping young people to develop their career path and discover the corporate world and its codes. Over the last five years, around one hundred Airbus “sponsors” have provided 280 young people with their support through dedicated associations.

“We want to continue building projects to support and accompany young people,” said Thierry Baril, Chief Human Resources Officer, Airbus Group & Airbus. “Acting in favour of diversity, whatever form this may take, goes well beyond a societal and moral commitment. It is the very basis of our identity, our DNA and our core values,” he added.

Airbus has launched numerous initiatives to support social diversity, gender equality and the professional integration of young people. Airbus has welcomed schoolchildren and secondary school students for internships or visits of its sites to discover aeronautical professions.

In 2016, some 50 young people from priority education networks will be welcomed for internships at Airbus sites in France.

In parallel, the Lycée Airbus which trains its students for aeronautical professions admits young people from underprivileged areas each year enabling them to access apprenticeship courses at Airbus or with its partners.

In 2011, Airbus Group signed a long-term agreement on social diversity, equal opportunities and the prevention of discrimination. In 2015, Airbus signed the “Charte Entreprises et Quartiers” (Companies and Neighbourhoods Charter) for contributing to the economic and social development of the priority neighbourhoods.

With a workforce that counts more than 120 different nationalities, speaking more than 20 languages, Airbus encourages every type of diversity (cultural, social, age- and gender-related, etc.) because it is a source of innovation, performance and commitment for its teams.

About the partner associations

Capital Filles : set up in 2011 by Orange and the French Ministries of National Education, Higher Education, Vocational Training and Apprenticeship, accompanies young girls from underprivileged and rural areas. Its action is based on the joint commitment of women sponsors, volunteers from partner companies and teachers who together help the young girls choose their career orientations and facilitate their meeting with the corporate world. 

Capital Filles currently brings together 13 partner companies, and is active in 84 secondary schools selected by the Education Authorities present in 21 Education Authority Areas. In 2016, 817 women sponsors from Capital Filles are supporting more than 5,000 young girls in years twelve and thirteen.

 Passeport Avenir : in cooperation with companies (sponsorship by volunteer managers), accompanies 5,000 young people a year from modest backgrounds in their academic and professional paths, to help a new generation of different leaders to emerge as examples of success and diversity.

NQT: The NQT association has become a key player in enhancing the skills of young graduates from modest backgrounds, some of whom live in deprived areas. This local initiative – developed in 2005 in Seine-Saint-Denis (near Paris) – made it possible to create the association in 2006 which now covers all of the Ile-de-France, Rhône-Alpes, Midi-Pyrénées, Aquitaine, PACA, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Picardie, Poitou-Charentes, Normandie, Languedoc-Roussillon, Alsace, Centre-Val de Loire and Pays-de-la-Loire regions, as well as four overseas “departments” (Guadeloupe, Martinique, La Réunion and Guiana). NQT proposes a unique sponsorship system with the backing of its partners and patrons.

Since 2005, more than 30,040 young graduates have been followed up, 69% of whom have been hired to take up a position corresponding to their qualification in just 6 months on average. 7,960 sponsors have been mobilised and 800 partner-patrons are associated with this initiative.

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