OSENGO Partner Information File

Background and Experience

OSENGO is a non-profit VET organization, specialist in lifelong learning and vocational education,

member of the French Vocational Education Federation (Fédération de la Formation Professionnelle

-FFP). OSENGO has 32 permanent training centres located in four regions of France: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Occitanie, Nouvelle Aquitaine and Centre Val de Loire. (www.OSENGO.fr)

For over thirty years, OSENGO has been supporting various target groups towards lifelong vocational education or career change:

–          employees (managers, entrepreneurs)

–          young people

–          unemployed people

–          disabled workers

–          seniors,etc.

OSENGO provides qualifying and certifying training in the hospitality-catering, sanitary and social, animation, tertiary, commercial and digital sectors. Beyond these certificated courses, the OSENGO Group offers also tailor-made services:

–          Support to job search

–          Social integration & Working with immigrants

–          Professional skills assessments

–          Evaluation for business creation or takeover

–          Professional orientation: construction and validation of professional project

–          Development of cross-functional skills and key skills related to the needs of companies

–          Trainers’ training

For several years, OSENGO is one of the providers of the French national agency for employment (Pôle Emploi) for the « Activ’Emploi » initiative, which aims to boost job search. It is a flexible and tailor-made service that allows unemployed people to benefit from personalized advice, tools and information on the labour market, reinforce job search techniques.

In 1988, OSENGO organized its first internships in Europe for its learners.

OSENGO created a special department for Europe related topics in 1994 and has since led numerous projects of mobility and pedagogical engineering. Since then, we have developed a strong network of European partners (40 partners in 16 EU Member States), and acquired expertise on the administrative, financial and pedagogical management of the projects.  (www.europe.osengo.fr)

OSENGO Europe is mainly focused on:

–          Sending trainees and professionals to Europe

–          Hosting European trainees in France

–          Developing European educational engineering projects

Through our internal mobility program (Forcemob 1/2/3 & VOLEO), we send our trainees but also trainers abroad for their apprenticeship or good practice exchanges. Through these mobilities and the associated feedbacks from our learners we have observed that international mobility provides real enrichment: adaptation to cultural differences, improving language level and developing many transversal skills that are useful for the personal development as well as for the sustainable employability of our learners.

We also coordinated, or participated in KA2 strategic partnerships in Tourism, Recognition of acquired skills, development of ECVET system and sharing best practices with its European partners.

Since 1998, OSENGO Europe has been a service provider of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region for the AUDACE + KA1 project. AUDACE+ allows to jobseekers to carry out their internship in a European company.

OSENGO has been engaged in a quality management process since 2000 and certified ISO 9001 version 2008 (AFAQ-AFNOR certification delivered) until 2017, and we are still ISQ-OPQF certified. Quality certification attests of OSENGO skill and commitment to kaizen (continuous improvement) process, ensuring our customers’ satisfaction, our beneficiaries’ success, our educational engineering quality and our ability to change our practices with the needs for improvement and the evolution of the market. Our quality manual explains our guidelines, our overall organization, functioning, and our risk management. Process and proceedings describe operations to be followed to generate our results. We also developed a specific Quality Plan for the management of European projects, summing up communication process between partners, rules of functioning, reminding the objectives, activities, calendar and indicators of evaluation for each specific project. Very attached to human and employment equity values, OSENGO is also engaged in a RSE process (Societal Responsibilities of Enterprises). We are also among the 3300 signatories of the diversity charter, committing ourselves to fight against discriminations and promote diversity in our training agencies.

As part of this project, OSENGO team will be able to build upon all these experiences and skills and to call upon its network of companies and its institutional or associative partners such as the Youth Information network, the Houses of Europe/Europe Direct, the Missions Locales or the Pôle Emploi.

Experience, activities and persons

OSENGO has developed strong experience in the coordination of European projects in the framework of ERASMUS + program:

1. Sending trainees and professionals in Europe (Leonardo,Grundtvig, Erasmus+). OSENGO Europe offers support service based on its prescribes and partners’ network (Missions Locales, Pôle Emploi, Youth Information Centres, associations,,companies, etc.). Around 130 beneficiaries participate in outgoing mobilities every year. Mainly low skilled job seekers, young graduates and learners of OSENGO certified vocational trainings.

2. Hosting European trainees with the same European partners, and with a network of companies and hosting families, OSENGO hosts 30 to 50 European trainees every year and developing. We are in charge of the coordination of the logistical hosting, accommodation and matching the right training mission with the appropriate candidate.

3. Educational Engineering (Leonardo, Erasmus +) The fundamental innovation line since 2011 has been the recognition of skills acquired during a mobility, and the development and implementation of the ECVET system:  ECVET experimentations through professional certifications in the fields of hospitality and catering and training plan based on European CV

4. Exchange of good practices and innovation OSENGO is also involved in strategic partnerships for innovation and the exchange of good practices, on specific topics. For instance, since September 2019, OSENGO is in charge of the coordination of LINT (improving learners’ basic skills), PROSPECT (developing an educational model focused on citizen engagement), BlendedVET (Blended Learbning for trainers). We are also part on a sectoral skills development project on SPA and Thermalism as well as in the EASI project (VP/2018/008/0016) to enforce learning skills through Europe. We are also partnering on Pro-Women and Foster project.

OSENGO Europe is composed of 2 offices, one in Lyon and one in Clermont-Ferrand. The head office of the OSENGO Group is in Clermont-Ferrand. We also benefit on mobility relays in the 32 OSENGO facilities. They spread, relay and are part of the mobility acts and of the pedagogic engineering. In these agencies key tutors are qualified for the validation of placements and of the content of the evaluation grid. OSENGO also has a team of technical trainers, with deep knowledge of job specifications in different sectors: hospitality, catering, tourism, digital technologies, people care and health care.

The OSENGO Europe team is composed of 4 persons.

Director, Marie-Noëlle DUFOUR.

30 years of field experience in Vet training and European projects, she maintains close contact with different experts competent in the Education and Vocational Training sector. She has been part of the works and events of the European network ECVET Team since end of 2010. Marie-Noëlle DUFOUR has been in charge of the development of VET mobilities since 1988. She is also regularly in touch with plenty of institutional representatives, heads of companies and European partners.

Mathieu SCHAEFER is the European Projects Coordinator, graduated from a master’s degree in project management in tourism and valorisation of territories, is in charge of the coordination of the transnational ERASMUS + Strategic Partnerships.

Sarah BAUDRY is based in Clermont-Ferrand. She is the coordinator of outgoing mobilities within the framework of ERASMUS + program (selection, preparation, follow up and evaluation of the participants) and has a great experience in youth projects coordination. We have currently 2 KA1 projects FORCE’MOB 4, VOLEO and one with the local region (AUDACE+).

Xavier BRAZ, based in Lyon, holder of a MASTER degree in International and Intercultural Negotiation, is coordinating the incoming mobilities for all out KA1 projects or for our partner organisations within the framework of ERASMUS + program or not (selection, preparation, follow up and evaluation of the participants). These include selection of hosting families, work placements etc.

Sarah, Mathieu and Xavier will bring their expertise to the management of the project according to the needs of skills. Françoise VANDAMME has been in charge of the administrative and financial follow-up of the European programs for many years and will continue to do so on this project as well. Another person is in charge of the communication of the OSENGO Group and particularly of the digital communication (website, social networks). He is involved in all the activities of transmission (trade shows, targeted networks) externally and internally and will take over the communication associated to the project. We also have an e-learning department.

European Union granted project in the 3 years

Associated partners:

Our associated partners are:

·         UMIH63 a Hotel syndicate at French level but also based in Clermont-Ferrand;

·         International Horizons active in Vet mobility but also international work placements;   

·         Chamber of industry and commerce from our region Auvergne Rhone Alpes (Public Body);

·         AMILAURA working in integration of unemployed young people in Lyon               ;

·         CRDTA an governmental regional Tourism development agency               ;

·         PAP HOTELS CORP S.A. Luxury Hotels with training centres in Thessaloniki Greece with whom we exchange on tourism and hotel practices on international level;

·         Nepsod Evolution, Vet training centre in Auvergne Rhone Alpes region part of OSENGO Group;

·         Osengo Development, part of OSENGO Group, working on tailor made services for businesses;

·         Osengo RH and interim, working on short term employment integration in our region.