09/20/2016
A year after announcing that Total would help support refugees, the first graduating class of "Refugeeks" was rewarded for their efforts Thursday evening in Paris.
We are making good on our promise by supporting free skills-qualification training for Web development in partnership with the French Ministry of the Interior and the French government employment agency, Pôle Emploi. The training initiative was started by Simplon.co, an organization specializing in helping people qualify for and find jobs, which was already supported by Total through the "La France s'engage" .
Besides training, the refugees selected receive housing and assistance learning French thanks to the initiative’s co-partner Singa. Fréderic Bardeau, President of Simplon.co, emphasized that: “Handing out the training certificates marks the end of a decisive step, but also the beginning. They’ll integrate themselves into the business world where they’ll put their new skills to work.”
With the program over, Accenture, another Refugeek sponsor, has already promised to hire seven people.
In light of the initiative's success, Simplon.co plans to train 1,400 refugees in three years.