EU Funding Boosts Professionalization of Domestic Work!

Published on: 13/10/2020Updated on: 13/10/2020

In Sud-PACA, Hauts-de-France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and Grand Est regions, IPERIA has secured European Social Fund (ESF) support to finance training for over 10,000 domestic employees in 2020-2021.

Increasing Training Participation

For the first time in France, professional training for personal carers, family assistants, childminders, and childcare providers receives support from the European Social Fund, a European Union instrument for employment and inclusion. RRegional DIRECCTE offices in Sud-PACA, Hauts-de-France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and Grand Est, managing funds to best address local requirements, responded favorably to eligibility applications submitted by IPERIA in early 2020.

Specifically, 4,184 domestic sector employees in Hauts-de-France, 2,100 in Sud-PACA, 1,853 in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and 2,777 in Grand Est can access training through ESF co-funding.

Through this partnership, IPERIA and its accredited training organization network have enhanced resources to accelerate sector skill development in these regions. Currently, 122,800 people are employed in Hauts-de-France, 96,000 in Sud-PACA, 151,365 in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and 106,000 in Grand Est. As elsewhere in France, most women with little or no qualifications need to enhance skills acquired through occupation practice through training and certification.

Securing Employment for Working Employees

In these four regions, ESF support primarily targets female employees already working in the domestic sector. Under the Skills Development Plan, beneficiaries can select from multiple training programs (including modules and skill blocks) that focus on qualifications prioritized by professional branches.

Training objectives: enable employees to advance their technical and behavioral skills (employer communication, professional space organization, multi-employer activity management...). Also, they acquire professional qualifications at their own pace to ensure long-term employability.

Preparing for Tomorrow's Challenges

The home care sector faces dual challenges: while direct home employment will grow, particularly for elder care, recruitment remains difficult. To address this, it's crucial to attract people to these careers, especially by challenging gender stereotypes around personal service roles. This becomes even more pressing given the need for workforce renewal - in France, 56% of domestic employees are over 50 years old.

"The training need is enormous," summarizes Hélène Blacher, IPERIA's Partnership and Collaborative Projects Manager. "We hope to extend ESF support to other regions; we're working on it." Long involved in European projects, IPERIA intends to sustain this new token of European Union trust.