Career opportunities in the neighbouring country

When Hannah Sandvoss arrives at her office at the heart of the chic publishing district Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris at 9:30 a.m., she is often one of the first to arrive. “People simply start work a little earlier than in France than they do in Germany,” says the 27-year-old from Hanau near Frankfurt. She has lived in Paris for almost ten years and for the last two years has been working at the Bureau international de l’édition française (BIEF) – a French publishers’ association that organises international networking programmes in the book industry. Her first real job in her dream city of Paris. “If you want to work in the French cultural sector, you simply have to go to Paris – and France has always been the country for me. I used to go there every summer holiday with my family and there was never any doubt that I was going to learn French at school.”

Immediately after taking her secondary school leaving exams (Abitur), Hannah went to Paris to take a Franco-German master’s degree in cultural management. This led to an internship at BIEF – and it quickly became clear that not only did she want to stay, but that her colleagues wanted her to go on working with her as well. Months of anxious waiting passed before she finally landed the job. “I was on tenterhooks,” Hannah remembers.

The FGYO supports 8,000 encounters per year

The fact that Hannah’s career start in France worked out virtually without a hitch in the end was thanks to the partner work programme Arbeit beim Partner (AbP) run by the Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO): the organisation subsidises positions with 900 euros per month for one year to enable young German and French people aged between 18 and 30 to gain their first extended work experience in the partner country. In 2024, 37 German and French clubs, associations and institutions in the cultural, sporting and social sectors benefited from the programme – a win-win situation for everyone involved. “The jobs we fund have to involve employment on at least a 30-hour-per-week basis, and the organisations often pay more than the required minimum wage. They also undertake to provide participants with close support,” says Noëlle Marceaux, who is in charge of the programme at the FGYO. Founded in 1963 under the Elysée Treaty, the FGYO promotes around 8,000 encounters every year – involving everyone from school pupils to young professionals.

As a project manager with her Paris-based employer, Hannah Sandvoss runs two Franco-German programmes herself: one for young publishing employees and one for young literary translators from Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria. She is independently responsible for everything from the budget to participant selection and programme organisation, though she does have the support of experienced colleagues. 

Frankfurt Book Fair as a partner

The Frankfurt Book Fair is partner to both these German-French publishing programmes. Mathilde Lagadu-Cleyn from Paris works for the latter – likewise under an AbP contract. When Mathilde came across the call for applications on the FGYO website, she didn’t hesitate for a second: “The Frankfurt Book Fair is the biggest of its kind in the world, so I knew it would open a lot of doors for me,” says the 26-year-old, who did a master’s degree in creative writing after studying political science.

Although she had taken the Franco-German Abitur and had already lived in Cologne and Dresden for some time, Mathilde Lagadu-Cleyn was not sure whether her knowledge of German would be sufficient. “I was afraid I might miss out on important details, but my colleagues were really supportive. The great thing about the AbP programme is that everyone knows that I’m French and that my German isn’t perfect.” 

Making valuable contacts

Mathilde says this year has been a perfect stepping stone for her career. She was able to take on a lot of responsibility right away – even beyond the Franco-German programmes. One such highlight was organising the German stand at the Warsaw Book Fair. “I love bringing authors, publishers and readers together, and I’m really keen to stay in intercultural event management.” Mathilde’s contract expires at the end of January, but she’s already found a new job at the literary festival Le Marathon des mots in Toulouse. In addition, she writes novels and children’s and young adult books herself which she hopes to publish soon. She was also able to make valuable contacts during her time in Frankfurt.

This applies to most AbP programme graduates. In 2023 there were twelve participants from France and 14 from Germany, with ten subsequently receiving a permanent employment contract and seven a temporary position – in most cases in the job they were doing for the programme. A total of 13 participants stayed in the partner country. Hannah Sandvoss’s dream has come true as well: she was offered a permanent contract at the BIEF right away and will remain in Paris for the next few years.