Impact of the "Groupement de Créateurs" support program on young people autonomy and social inclusion in France

The “Groupement de Créateurs” program is proposed to young people aged 18 to 25, who already have the project to create a business, an association or any new activity within an existing firm or association.

The support program has three phases. During the "Emergence phase", lasting between 2 to 8 months, the participants confirm their desire of carrying out their project. They learn to know themselves better: their motivations, strengths and weaknesses. They begin to talk and write about their project and confront it to external opinions. They also work on defining their project more precisely and determine what they need to achieve it. The support consists in regular individual interviews (about every 2 weeks) and collective workshops. The aim of this phase is to stimulate dynamism and autonomy, which are useful even if the project is abandoned in the end.
For the young people who confirm a desire of achieving their project in the short term, they can participate in the second phase, the Training phase which takes place within a University. This 6 months academic program leads to a technical degree in entrepreneurship. The third phase is the creation of the business, the association or any other kind of activity. During the entire program, the main role of the counselor is to pass on a method of making decision, that will be used by the young people for any project they will have to conduct. The counselor doesn’t interfere in the technical dimensions of the project, the technical expertise being provided by other actors who are specialized in entrepreneurial consulting.

A random half of the volunteers to participate in the program have been included in the test group, while the other half have been included in the control group. Both groups have had access to trainings and other programs in favour of entrepreneurship. The Emergence phase and its collective workshops remains specific to the test group. The evaluation concerns 902 young people (recruited during 29 months starting in November 2010): 468 young people are beneficiaries of the program while 434 have been included in the control group (and can benefit from other programs, except the "Groupement de Créateurs").

2010-11-15

2014-03-31

The program is expected to have an impact on many aspects of young people’s lives: employment and job creation at first, but also psychological dimensions such as autonomy, social integration, motivation, or ability to make choices. Two surveys will be conducted 11 and 21 months after the entry in the program to measure these outcomes. An additional wave of tests will be included to measure some psychological specific outcomes such as autonomy, degree of realism, personal motivation and time preferences.

The inclusion of young people in the experiment was carried out by the workers ("youth advisers") within the Missions Locales based on a specific protocol. Field visits have been organized by the evaluation team to check the compliance with the protocol.

The entry of young volunteers in the experiment was performed in two steps. Following an initial contact with the young (through an individual or collective session), the youth adviser presents the detailed content of the program to the young and check their eligibility. After that, the principle of randomization was exposed by the advisers to the young who also gave them the text of the informed consent. Youth advisers have been widely informed about the methodology used in this trial and session pooling practices were organised to train them to face the potential questions about the selection process.

Following this initial contact, the young is given a period of reflection to decide whether or not she wants to participate in the experiment. If this is the case, she goes to a second meeting with her adviser during which she will sign the informed consent and fill in an initial questionnaire on an extranet created for the sake of the evaluation (baseline survey). It is only after the young has fully completed the baseline survey that she is considered as participant of the experiment. Every week, the randomization was performed by the evaluation team after she receives the baseline surveys.

This two-step protocol was defined to maximize full compliance, i. e. to maximise the proportion of young beneficiaries who actually takes the program.

The randomization has been done in office by a computer.

Individual level of randomization.

No

Planned number: 1000 people.
Effective number: 902 people.

Planned number: 1000 people, effective number: 902 people

Plannned sample size: 500 young people assigned to the treatment group ; 500 assigned to the control group.
Effective sample size: 468 young people in the treatment group ; 434 in the control group .