Repairing bicycles to integrate the world of work. A bicycle repair shop has been carried out since February with out-of-school young people between the ages of 16 and 19 under Child Protection, Saint-Clément district to the west of Montpellier. The association Un Toit Ou Learn trains 12 young people to repair and sell bicycles and to know the vocabulary that goes with it. They can then do their internship at Decathlon, in particular that of Odysseum in Montpellier.
Interview with Franck Lancia, employee of the association Un Toit Ou Learn.
So you are teaching a group of 12 young people between the ages of 16 and 19 under Child Protection to repair bicycles?
It is even a diploma that allows them to be trained as a sales technician in sport in general and with a well-framed cycle option.
And the goal is to integrate them into the city of Montpellier and into the world of work?
The goal is to try to integrate them into companies. Whether it’s small stores or even large structures like the TAM. Or with one of our big partners on the operation, Decathlon. In particular that of Odysseum in Montpellier which takes our young people on internship and professionalizes them. We want to find a slightly broader future for them than if we had sectored them into one profession. The idea is to offer them a job that is a little different from what they usually offer, often oriented towards building or catering.
How are these workshops going? Tell me.
This is training which, in normal times, is delivered for example by the Afpa. It lasts 400 hours. With us, it is 1400 hours. The choice to have extended it is to necessarily integrate an adaptation of French lessons and an adaptation of what is called the FLP. It is French, the professional language, which is based on our six-year experience of supporting these young people to orient them specifically to the professions that choose and to have courses oriented towards these professions and not general.
How is it useful for these young people that you accompany to participate in this kind of workshops?
It gives them a project. It’s giving them recognition for what they know how to do. They have a professional practice which is very interesting. We are going to value their know-how and we are going to provide them with life skills linked to what, in theory, we obtain at school. They will gain an approach to the world of work that is totally different, which will allow them to build themselves.
And then they will become professionals. But the advantage of having transformed this 400-hour training into 1,400 hours is that they are given time to understand the profession, the trade and the know-how in a company. Contact with customers is completely different because there it is structured, it is organized and it is very rewarding for them and it is rewarding to go for the team.
Your workshop is located at 160 rue d’Alco, Saint-Clément district in Montpellier. For what type of repair can we come to see you?
For any type of repair. We have the daily user who goes to work by bike and is very happy when his tire bursts on the road to be able to stop and repair. We also have real sportsmen who drop off their bikes for maintenance during the week, which they pick up on Fridays and who go on their rides on the weekends. We also adapt a bit as we are asked.
The repairs cost around ten euros, more information on the website of the association Un Toit Ou Learn or on their Facebook page.
– Association A Roof Where To Learn