Pledge 48 – Rennes

In September 2020, the Councils of Rennes City and Rennes Métropole joined the EUROCITIES campaign by signing a pledge to the European Pillar of Social Rights. The Councils affirmed their commitment to education, training and lifelong learning (Principle 1, EPSR) and active support to employment (Principle 4, EPSR).

On principle 1, Rennes City Council is committed to reducing digital inequalities and promote the digital transformation of society. Rennes:

• Pledges to earmark €65 million per year for child, youth and educational policies.
• Has developed a digital education plan to strengthen the role of digital technology in school-based learning. 421 digital blackboards have been installed in 83 primary schools, and during the Covid-19 pandemic 310 laptops were delivered to families, through the EducaRennes project.
• Has set up 19 ‘Public Digital Spaces’ in neighbourhood social centres, and 6 in other social facilities. At these hubs, citizens can access social services online with support from ‘Social-Digital-Mediators’.
• Has developed a network of 15 digital manufacturing labs across Rennes Métropole, to make digital technology more accessible and useful for improving employability. This project earned Rennes Métropole its FabCity accreditation.
• Will inaugurate an Edulab, with a budget of €1,590,000 for the first three years. In this educational service space, citizens will learn about digital technology from hands-on experience.

Rennes actively supports employment, as part of its Solidarity and Social Cohesion Policy, to which it devotes €22 million. Rennes:

• Committed to a second ‘Rennes Insertion Pact’ for the period 2017-2021. It helps 11,000 citizens each year to develop skills, facilitate return to employment, promote well-being and the maintenance of social ties, support digital inclusion and develop mobility.
• Successfully supported 1,908 citizens in 2019 in their path towards inclusion, as a result of which they no longer needed income support.
• Will start its ‘Zero Long-term Unemployed’ scheme in Blosne neighbourhood, which will create fixed-term contracts in jobs that benefit the local community.
• Commits to reinforce its ‘Neighbourhood Job Plan’, creating economic activity in deprived areas and strengthening the weighting of social clauses in public calls for tender.
• At Rennes Métropole level, the Local Insertion and Employment Plan (PLIE) benefits 900 people each year, and it is financed with part of the €10 million devoted to social cohesion. Thanks to this plan, in 2019, over 44% of users found durable employment or qualifying training.

Mickaël Bouloux, Vice-President of Rennes Metropole in charge of tourism and international relations, and Flavie Boukhenoufa, Deputy Mayor of Rennes City Council in charge of international relations, public relations, religious affairs and secularity, said: “For more than 25 years now, Rennes City Council has been engaged in a proactive policy to promote access to rights and social and professional insertion for the local population. In many cases, the city has been a pioneer territory for trialling national social cohesion schemes.”