Do trainees need to be over 18?

Yes, for internships longer than 2 months. We charge for our services in project development, candidate selection, preparation and follow-up before and during the mobility. For short internships (less than 2 months) we charge our services to the sending organisations only, while the participants never have to pay for our services. The participants will never have to pay for our services, as one of our founding principles is that our services are free of charge for the participants.

Ohlala OUR SERVICES

With over 12 years of experience, we are experts in organising and supporting Erasmus + placements. Ohlala Placements accompanies passionate young European VET learners or graduates in their Erasmus + and Erasmus Pro professional mobility project in France and throughout Europe.

Offering such opportunities to your learners and graduates is a great asset for your organisation and an amazing chance for those who participate. However, as a sending organisation, you don't always have the time and/or manpower to develop and follow up on mobility around Europe. As an intermediary organisation, Ohlala Placements takes some of the workload off you and helps you develop, organise and support quality individual or group Erasmus + experiences in France for your participants.

Also, what is often a first experience abroad for the participants can be challenging with so much new to experience. While working with Ohlala Placements for placements in France, you get the assurance of a caring and supportive follow up with a physical presence onsite. At Ohlala Placements we take great pride in our work and deeply care about the people we work with.

Our aim is to work alongside and support everyone involved in the process and deliver “Ohlala” moments for the young professionals we assist and help them go further in their career and personal development.

Everyone has different expectations about their project or aspirations for their future career. This is why we work with a large range of host companies going from small independent artisan bakery and pastry shops or traditional restaurants, to 4 & 5-star hotels and Michelin starred restaurants in the Nantes area. Our expertise lies in matching the aspirations of the young professionals with the expectations of the host companies in which they will train. These companies have been diligently selected, offer good learning opportunities and share our values.

In life, everybody experiences things differently. That’s why we are available and offer a lot of flexibility. We created a secured and well supported environment that helps trainees overcome difficult situations that may arise during their Erasmus + experience in France. The regular individual support meetings allow us to identify any potential issue and help the trainees grow in confidence as the project goes. We want to help everyone thrive in their new company and country. Ohlala Placements supports both the trainees and their host companies all the way to ensure a successful outcome of the placement.

We communicate regularly with the sending organisations in the build up and during every project to keep them up to date. We also take care of getting all the necessary documentation signed by everyone concerned and sent back to the sending organisation in a timely manner. By working with Ohlala Placements, you offer young professionals on eye opening experience and a unique opportunity in France, to perfect their skills and to discover or deepen their knowledge of French techniques and specialities.

Our areas of intervention

Short-term Erasmus + in France

(2 to 12 weeks)

Short-term projects are designed for young professionals still in the process of training in their country of origin. This internship often represents a first work experience abroad and a foretaste of what it can be to live and work in France. We can help you develop and support individual mobility as well as mobility for groups of up to 12-15 people.

We trust our partner training institutions across Europe for the selection of participants. We do, however, ask each participant to send us a full and detailed CV in French (or English) and to fill in our "Participant Form" so that we can have a clear idea of each participant's profile, background and expectations of the placement. This allows us to match each participant with a suitable potential host company.

Ohlala Placements supports each participant in the preparation of his/her project. Prior to the arrival of the participant/group, we like to organise an information meeting by videoconference to give each participant the most useful and essential information and to indicate the professional scope of this project. This is to ensure that everyone arrives well prepared and with the right mindset for the future success of the project.

On arrival, there is always a member of our team to welcome the participant/group at the station or at the airport.

The project starts with a preparation day in our premises, in order to give the trainees a maximum of tools to start the course in good conditions (transport, timetable, good attitude,?).

Long-term Erasmus + in France

(young graduates - 3 to 6 months)

Long-term projects are designed for young people who have completed their education and have just graduated in their home country. This internship is a real experience of full-time work and life abroad. Ohlala Placements is with the trainees all the way to help them adapt to a new environment, culture, language and integrate within their French company and society.

A pre-selection is usually made by the sending organisation. Ohlala Placements then meets each candidate in a personal interview. This allows us to assess personality, maturity, passion for the job, resilience and level of French and/or English. It also helps us to find out more about the participant's previous work experience and expectations of the project. With all these elements in hand, we can identify the best possible host company for each participant and tailor the experience to their needs/aspirations. These projects are challenging, so we have to be make sure that the participant is ready to live such experience.

We accompany the participants in their search for accommodation and ensure that everyone finds suitable accommodation. The aim is to find accommodation in the vicinity of the host companies or that they are easily accessible with public transport. If possible, we prefer to find accommodation with the host company. If this is not the case, we accommodate the participants in house shares or with a host family. We believe that this is the best way for them to immerse themselves in French culture, to meet people and quickly improve their language skills.

As soon as the selection is announced, we encourage and recommend solutions for the future participant to work as much as possible on their French. This is an element that can have a major impact on the start of the project. Before the arrival of the participant, we organise a video-conference meeting to give everyone the most useful information about the project. The aim is to give practical details about the arrival, set our rules and expectations and the project programme. It is also an ideal opportunity for us to answer questions from the participants. Before this meeting, we also help participants to choose the most appropriate means and route to France.

On arrival, there is always a member of our team to physically greet the participant, whether that is at the station or at the airport.

The first week of the project takes place in our premises. This is an opportunity to review the basics of French and to do some professional coaching. We also make sure that everyone has all the necessary tools to start their internship (transport, timetable, good attitude) and to answer any last minute questions. The objective of this preparation week is that everyone gets their bearings, is well prepared and equipped for their professional introduction and ready to start their internship with full confidence in themselves and their abilities.

During the first 3 months of the project, we organise physical (or video) follow-up meetings with each participant (outside working hours) every 2-3 weeks. During these meetings we discuss a large number of topics (work, progress, language, housing, social life, finances, etc.). The aim of these meetings is to identify potential difficulties and quickly put in place the appropriate solutions to overcome them. If all goes well, we encourage participants to do more to get the most out of their experience in France. We take notes in these meetings and can share these with the sending organisations to keep them up to date with their participants' projects and progress.

Thereafter, we want to give more autonomy to each participant and meet them once a month. However, in case of questions, needs or emergencies, we are always available to support the participants or their host companies whenever they need us.

We are also in regular contact (once a month in person and by telephone/visio) with the host companies to assess the progress of the participants and to identify problems/difficulties that may arise at work. If necessary, we organise a mediation meeting to discuss and find solutions to difficulties encountered in the workplace.

Preparatory visits of sending organisations

We love to host partner sending organisations on project preparatory visits. We will gladly welcome you in Nantes and show you around this great city and the premises we use for the French lessons and preparation. It would also be the perfect opportunity to make you visit some of our partner host companies, meet and exchange with some tutors and potentially participants, if some are present at the time. We hope this will help you see how serious we are in our operations and how much we care about putting together memorable experiences for the people we assist.

Erasmus + internships (short & long-term) across Europe

We have more than 10 years of experience in developing Erasmus + internships in Europe. If you are a training organisation with access to Erasmus + funding and you need help to develop placements abroad, we can help you. We can find quality host companies for you in countries where you may not have a partner intermediary organisation on site.

However, for all the countries where we are not physically present (outside France), we cannot offer the same level of follow-up and support (except for certain countries where we may have an intermediary partner organisation on site).

In this context, our services are therefore limited to identifying the host company and assisting with the signing of all the necessary documents and remote monitoring.

In order to carry out the search in the best conditions we need a CV and detailed profile of the candidate. We also need to interview him/her in order to better understand his/her project and expectations. This to put us in a better position to identify a company that corresponds to the project.

For internships in Europe our services are invoiced to the sending organisations

Erasmus + short-term 350 €
Long Erasmus Pro internships 500 €

QuestionsAnswers

All participants have a minimum of 2 to 3 years of professional training in their field. But this can be up to 5 or 6 years for some. Some will have gone through the apprenticeship system, others will not. As the level of education is not standardised at European level, trainees will have received different training depending on their country of origin and therefore partly different from the French training. It will therefore be necessary to allow time for adaptation at the beginning of the course.

We ask the participants and their sending organisation to trust us in the identification of the host companies. We are experts in this field. We take the time to understand your needs and expectations before the project. We then use all gathered information to find the right company for everyone. However, we will never force anyone to do what they don't want to do, so the participant will always have the last word if they are not happy with our choice of host company for them. We also make sure to match the participant with the host company's expectations.

As listed above, the price for our services is 350€ for the development and support of a short-term Erasmus + placement and 500€ for an Erasmus Pro placement. To avoid additional costs to the sending organisation, these correspond to the amounts of the Erasmus + organisational support.

The choice of accommodation is quite varied and depends on the location of the placement as well as the budget of the participants and their needs/expectations. For long-term projects, we encourage participants to go into house/flat shares or host families as we feel this is the best way for them to immerse themselves into the French culture, to meet people and quickly improve their French language skills. Other options are university halls, “foyer jeunes travailleurs” or hotels. With that in mind we will assist the participant in securing accommodation near his/her future workplace and help him/her with any administrative tasks should it be required.

This is not an obligation, but this would help greatly the participants especially for the start of their placement. A minimum of English would help as well. The level of French is not our main selection criteria. After all, how could we ask someone who has never lived in France to already speak our language well? If the participants have the right personality and desire to learn, they will quickly improve in French. Each participant has a few language courses to learn / review the basics before the start of the internship. In the company, the best way for the participant to communicate is to be willing, to demonstrate his/her professional ability and to reproduce the gestures explained/demonstrated by his/her tutor. At Ohlala Placements we speak French, English & Spanish.

It all depends on the number of placements to find and the season. In all cases the earlier you contact us the better (especially for long-term placements). For short-term internships, we ask you to contact us at least 6 weeks before the start date of the placement. The main issue being securing accommodation, which can be tricky with short notice.

Yes, for all long-term placements and for short-term placements as well if there are no accompanying teachers present for the whole duration of the project.

If there are accompanying teachers with the participant or the group, we accept under-18.

Ohlala Let's meet!

Let's talk about your project today.

Menu

Menu

Ohlala OUR SERVICES

Our areas of intervention

Kitchen

Service

Sommelier

Reception

Bakery

Patisserie

Butchery

Valet / chambermaid

Chocolate making