PSA Peugeot Citroen will have in place 2,000 work-study programme participants by end-2015. According to a company press release, this is keeping in line with the commitments made under the new social contract and signed with four labour unions in October 2013.

The contracts in the programme include apprenticeship and vocational training contracts and industrial agreements for training through research. By the end of last month, 1,800 young people had already joined the ranks at PSA.

The release states that the commitment to hire young people is a way of preparing the next generation of employees and also enabling hiring on permanent contracts. Under the policy, particular attention has been paid to recruiting young female applicants with a target of 30 per cent women among new work-study hires (women now represent 20 per cent of the group's workforce).

During the recruitment campaign, a website created specifically for work-study programme offers received 90,000 visits and more than 7,000 CVs. This showed that young people view PSA as a highly attractive employer. As a further expression of its commitment, the company has hired nearly 200 youngsters on permanent contracts to boost its sales teams in France.

New strategy Clearly, PSA is on the recovery path after being in the dumps for some years now following the slowdown in Europe. The move to focus on youth is also an indication of the new set of priorities for a company which is quickly going global with new focus areas in Asia and Latin America with China being its most important market.

Likewise, the fact that women will play a far more active role in the future is also keeping in line with the need for greater gender diversity. This is evident in India too where there is an increasing number of women in auto companies which includes vehicle and component makers.

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