Young jobseekers become seasonal entertainers thanks to collaboration between EURES France and Italy

“Last November, during a EURES training session in Sweden, I met Biancangela Fabbri from EURES Italy,” recalls Sébastien Faure of EURES France.

“During the session, Biancangela informed us that one of her employers in Italy, Your Friends Animazione, was looking for candidates from all over Europe,” he explains. Biancangela was seeking candidates to work as children’s entertainers in the holiday centres run by Your Friends Animazione during the summer season.

“I suggested to Biancangela to work together to promote the jobs of Your Friends Animazione to our young candidates registered on the European Solidarity Corps programme,” Sébastien explains.

He quickly received many applications from young French jobseekers and set up telephone and Skype interviews between Your Friends Animazione and the candidates.

“It's interesting and fun to be totally immersed in Italian culture”

Following a successful recruitment process, four candidates from France and Spain were selected to attend a five-day training in Tuscany in April 2019. They were trained to work in their roles as children’s entertainers. The company paid for their travel and accommodation for the week.

One young participant was 20-year-old Wilfried from Île-de-France, just outside of Paris. Prior to being selected, Wilfried was not in education, employment or training. Following his initial training, Wilfried is now on a two-month placement with Your Friends Animazione. Wilfried works at a holiday centre in a touristic village on the island of Sardinia. His tasks include organising sports tournaments for teenagers and organising shows each evening.

“It’s tiring, the pace is fast,” Wilfried says. “But we have so much fun that it doesn’t matter.”

He has gained many soft and hard skills, including improving his English and learning some Italian and German. He has also enjoyed experiencing another culture first hand.

“It’s interesting and fun to be totally immersed in Italian culture,” Wilfried says. “At the beginning, I didn’t understand anything in Italian. Now I understand it.”

After his time in Italy concludes, Wilfried plans to move abroad again, this time to Denmark, where he will undertake a European Voluntary Service placement at a school for young people with disabilities.

“We both believed in the project”

Biancangela’s EURES office in Pistoia has been collaborating with Your Friends Animazione for several years now, and she feels there is something special about the experience that young jobseekers such as Wilfried gain from working for the company.

“They manage to bring out the best in the young people, who are selected without any experience as entertainers and often arrive nervous and shy, unaware of their talents,” she says.

Biancangela is also full of praise for Sébastien and the smoothness of their international collaboration. “Sébastien and I understood each other immediately, having the same working method,” she explains. “We both believed in the project, and his empathy, enthusiasm and communication made it easy and fun for me to collaborate.”

“Together, we followed complementary steps: I supported the company in the project registration and selection of candidates and he promoted the vacancy and the applications of young French people.”

Sébastien is equally grateful to Biancangela, describing the initiative as a “great collaboration”. The two hope to collaborate further in the future, and have already made plans to repeat this successful initiative with Your Friends Animazione in 2020.

Related links:

Your Friends Animazione

European Solidarity Corps

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