INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS — AFEX

For many years, AFEX has worked to develop international exchange programs to welcome young architects and urban planners from around the world to France.

AFEX and its institutional partners are hosting three international exchange programs in 2024 with India, China and Ivory Coast (interview below).

Depending on local desire and possibilities, these programs are intended to be reproduced, in different ways, with young professionals of other nationalities.

This is how the reception of young Saudi and Korean architects is already scheduled for 2025.

The arrival of the Chinese Interns in Septembre 2024, Paris La Défense


INDIAN INTERNS (YUDAP)

At the initiative of AFEX, and largely initiated by the ENIA agency, very present in India, 5 young Indian professionals are received each year for six months in the agencies of AFEX members. This exemplary program (Young Urban Designers and Architects Program) is carried out with the support of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the Ministry of Culture and the French Institute in India.

 
YUDAP promotions at the Ministry of Ecological Transition & Territorial Cohesion under the Grande Arche of Paris-La Défense, in September 2021, 2022 & 2023. 

THE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

This program allows five young urban planners and architects already working in their country to benefit from additional theoretical and professional training within French architectural agencies for 6 months.

Its objective is to deepen Franco-Indian cooperation in the field of sustainable urban development, in accordance with intergovernmental agreements, while contributing to the influence of French expertise internationally.

It is organized into 4 sequences:

- One week of initial training led by the MTES*, MC and AFEX in Paris, particularly focused on French institutional organization and recent achievements in urban planning and architecture;

- A 6-month internship within 5 French town planning and architecture agencies;

- A week-long workshop, organized in the middle of the stage at the Paris Belleville school, in conjunction with students of specialization and advanced diploma in architecture;

- A sequence of program evaluation and presentation of professional projects by the trainees, in Paris and Delhi.

MATERIAL CONDITIONS

Agencies pay interns a minimum of 1,100 euros per month. They also receive 300 euros per month from the French Institute in India as well as a social security grant worth 110 euros per month.

THE SIGNATORIES OF THE PROGRAM

The Ministry of Culture (MC)

The Ministries of Ecological and Inclusive Transition and Territorial Cohesion (MTES)

The French Institute in India (IF)

The association French Architects for Export (AFEX)

The National School of Architecture of Paris-La Villette (ENSAPLV)

And

Delhi School of Planning and Architecture


CHINESE INTERNS

For many years, in the wake of the program of 150 Chinese architects of the “presidential program” (1995-2005), AFEX has managed the room of Chinese urban planner trainees in French agencies.

The selection is organized with the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Beijing and the Chinese Ministry of Construction.

This program consists of the room in France for a period of two and a half months, 4 to 10 Chinese interns, unpaid, with a profile similar to that of the Indians mentioned above.

With the end of the zero covid policy and the reopening of China, we are relaunching in 2023 - with the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion and the French Embassy in China - the program to welcome " 150 Chinese urban planners in France” with the arrival of four Chinese urban planner trainees in France in October 2023.

AFEX is responsible for preparing and managing the reception in France of these interns in French architecture and town planning agencies that wish them (more particularly those with a link with China).

Photographic galleries in October 2023 of the new promotion of the “150 Chinese urban planners in France” program: reception of Chinese urban planner trainees at the Ministry of Ecological Transition under the Grande Arche of Paris-La Défense, site visits, project house visits of the Sema, etc.


Ivorian INTERNS (JACIF)

AFEX and CNOACI, Place des Vosges, Paris

In March 2023, AFEX launched the first welcoming session for young African architects, in partnership with the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Europe and Business foreign & the Paris-la Villette school of architecture on the French side, and the CNOACI (National Council of the Order of Ivorian Architects) on the African side.

The JACIF (Young Architects of Ivory Coast in France) program aims to promote French know-how in sustainable cities in Ivory Coast, a strategic issue for the country which is experiencing exceptional urbanization, driven by demographic growth.

The association is responsible for preparing and managing the arrival in France of these interns and placing them in French agencies.

March 2023 at the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion under the Grand Arche of Paris-La Défense, the first promotion of the JACIF program