Skip to content

Institute of Public Policies

Home » Publications » Report » The impact of the Youth Engagement Contract on beneficiaries’ career progression / professional trajectories

The impact of the Youth Engagement Contract on beneficiaries’ career progression / professional trajectories

Isacco Berte, Maria Cano, Francesco Filippucci, Audrey Rain, Nadia Zargouni, Mathilde Badufle
January 2026
This report provides a quantitative analysis of the ‘Youth Engagement Contract’ (CEJ) programme, which was introduced in 2022 to replace the ‘Youth Guarantee’ (GJ) scheme within the Local Missions.
Reference IPP Report No. 63

Quote this publication

Badufle, Mathilde, Bertè, Isacco, Cano, María, Leroy, Claire, Rain, Audrey (January 2026). ‘The Youth Engagement Contract – young people who have dropped out of the education system: a quantitative evaluation’, IPP Reports, No. 64. Institut des politiques publiques (IPP).
Download

Presentation

Background

In France, the proportion of young people aged 16 to 25 who are neither in employment, education nor training (NEET, from the English ‘not in education, employment or training’) remains high. This has led the public authorities to introduce various schemes to promote the (professional/vocational) integration into employment of young people who are distant from the labour market.

What are the differences between the Youth Engagement Contract and the Youth Guarantee?

The CEJ was introduced on 1 March 2022 across the whole of France for young people aged 16 to 25, through the Missions Locales and France Travail. It replaces the Youth Guarantee, a scheme that had been in place since 2013 within the Local Missions. The Youth Guarantee offered one year’s support, including a monthly allowance and a focus on rapid placement in employment, even where there were peripheral barriers.

The CEJ introduces several changes to the support provided to beneficiaries: a shorter and more flexible duration, generally six months, and intensive support with the requirement for the beneficiary to take part in various activities for at least 15 hours per week. This scheme is accompanied by an allowance of up to 561.68 euros per month (amount as at 1 April 2025), for a maximum duration of 12 months.

The CEJ also broadens the target audience to include not only young people who are neither in employment nor in education or training, but also young people in precarious employment situations.

Key Results

Beneficiaries of the Youth Engagement Contract

  • In the Local Missions, the average monthly intake into the scheme was around 16,000 new contracts started each month. By way of comparison, over the period 2018–2022, the average number of Youth Guarantee contracts started each month was around 9,600. As for France Travail, the average monthly intake into the scheme is 7,500 new contracts, with a peak of nearly 38,000 young people when the CEJ was introduced in March 2022.
  • The introduction of the CEJ provides for an expansion of the beneficiary population to include workers in precarious employment: a comparison of the characteristics of GJ beneficiaries with those of CEJ beneficiaries does indeed show an increase in the proportion of young people with work experience during the previous quarter. Among young people who started a CEJ in 2023, 37 per cent had work experience (in paid employment) during the previous quarter; this proportion was only 27 per cent for those who started a Youth Guarantee in 2021.

The support provided by the Local Missions

  • Young people who started a CEJ in 2023 had an average of 3.6 interactions per month with their local mission, compared with 2.3 for those who started a Youth Guarantee programme in 2021.
  • One of the main new features of the Youth Engagement Contract compared with the Youth Guarantee is participation in ‘structural solutions’ during the programme, mainly training courses (in 60 per cent of cases in 2023). Of the Youth Engagement Contracts started in 2023 through the Local Mission, 32 per cent involved participation in at least one structuring solution.

Support provided by France Travail

  • On average, young people on the Youth Engagement Contract at France Travail had 2.5 interviews per month over the period in question (March 2022 to June 2024). For young people enrolled in a Local Mission under the Youth Engagement Contract in 2023, the average was 1.9 interviews per month.
  • At France Travail, 16 per cent of young people on the Youth Engagement Contract in 2023 benefited from at least one structured support programme, which is half the figure for young people on the Youth Engagement Contract at a Local Mission in the same year. In most cases, this took the form of training.

Impact assessment of the scheme for young people supported by a Mission Locale

The Youth Engagement Contract replaced the Youth Guarantee on 1 March 2022 across the whole of France, without going through a pilot phase. This immediate nationwide roll-out makes it difficult to estimate the absolute effect of the Youth Engagement Contract, that is to say, the programme’s effect on beneficiaries’ employment trajectories compared with those of similar young people who would not have benefited from it, but who might have been eligible.

In order to compare the effect of the Youth Engagement Contract with that of the Youth Guarantee, the authors have selected a sample comprising young people who started a Youth Guarantee in January or February 2022 —- that is, the programme’s final months —- and young people who joined the Youth Engagement Contract in March or April 2022, when it was rolled out. This choice allows for the formation of two groups that are very similar in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and labour market status at the time of entering the scheme

A comparison of employment trajectories between the CEJ and the Youth Guarantee for this sample – which appears to be representative of the population of CEJ beneficiaries in local youth employment agencies – suggests a broadly similar short-term effect, although the CEJ appears to promote a faster return to work.

Discussion on the costs and benefits of the CEJ in local youth employment agencies

  • The cost of supporting a young person under the Youth Engagement Contract is higher than that of the Youth Guarantee, notably because one of the objectives of the Youth Engagement Contract was to offer more intensive support to young beneficiaries. On the other hand, a beneficiary of the Youth Guarantee receives higher average benefits, as this scheme runs for a longer period. Ultimately, the average cost per young person remains lower under the Youth Engagement Contract than under the Youth Guarantee, by around 17 per cent, excluding inflation.
  • The Youth Engagement Contract therefore appears to be slightly less costly than the Youth Guarantee, whilst delivering a comparable effect, and could have a more rapid short-term impact on employment trajectories. However, our analysis does not allow us to measure all the specific effects of the Youth Engagement Contract compared with the Youth Guarantee, particularly with regard to removing the peripheral barriers faced by young people.

Method and Data

The authors compare the Youth Engagement Contract with the Youth Guarantee, which it replaced in March 2022 within the Local Missions. This analysis aims to evaluate whether the replacement of one scheme by the other has had a measurable impact on the career progression / professional trajectories of young beneficiaries.

This identification strategy applies only to beneficiaries of the Youth Engagement Contract (CEJ) in Local Missions, where the Youth Guarantee had previously been in place.

In order to compare the effect of the Youth Engagement Contract with that of the Youth Guarantee, the authors selected a sample comprising young people who started a Youth Guarantee in January or February 2022 – i.e. the programme’s final months – and young people who joined the Youth Engagement Contract in March or April 2022, when it was rolled out. This approach allows for the creation of two groups that are very similar in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and labour market status at the time of joining the scheme.

Data

  • Administrative data from the ‘Youth Engagement Contract’ programme provided by the Missions Locales and France Travail.
  • The ForCE scheme, used to track these beneficiaries’ labour market trajectories

Partners

Direction de l’Animation de la Recherche des Études et des Statistiques du Travail (Dares)

This project received support from Dares. The authors would also like to thank the General Delegation for Employment and Vocational Training (DGEFP) and the National Union of Local Missions (UNML) for their invaluable assistance.

Last modified: July 21, 2026