Posted by Can you imagine the pain when you look for a job as a fresh graduate with a blank sheet on your resume? Can you imagine the embarrassment of wanting to travel around the world after graduation and being shy in the pocket? Today, I will introduce you to a very attractive program called Volontariat international en enterprise, or VIE for short. I knew this program from ex-colleagues and really see the good benefit in it, this post is not sponsored by any organization.
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The VIE program is specifically aimed at young people (volunteers) who want to work abroad. It is highly paid, stable, sponsored, and arranged by a trusted organization. Being selected into such a program is really even more attractive than getting a scholarship for studying abroad!
One of the companies I worked for in Belgium attracted a lot of such ‘volunteers‘ because it was headquartered in France. Why I put the quotation marks is, although these volunteers have different contracts from ours, the work and responsibilities they have are completely the same. Thanks to the special contract, they don’t pay the Belgian tax as we do thus the net salary they get is much higher than the starting salary in Belgium! Curious about how much social security and tax we pay in Belgium? Check out How to read your Belgian payslip?
The companies that hire these volunteers do not have a cost (salary) for such employees, so they usually provide housing subsidies or cars. A colleague of mine was from Romania, he came to our company through VIE program, and got a salary of 2000 euros net from the start of his career! In the first year of working in Belgium, getting 2,000 euros after-tax is 30% more than average.
Let’s find out how this program works, who is paying in the end, and what is the motivation.
Who is sponsoring this program?
This program was started by an organization called Business France which is founded in 2015. The program aims to help French companies develop internationally and export young talents from Europe to the world. When the young talents return to their home country, they can also bring back precious international experience.
All income of VIE employees, insurance, and local social security is sponsored by Business France.
Who is eligibile to apply for VIE program?
1. Your age is between18 and 29
2. Your nationality is from EEA (European Economic Area)（excluding the UK since 2021）
3. No crime record
4. You need to sign an onboard contract with Business France
5. There is no specific requirement about major
What kind of companies can recruit VIE contractors?
1. A company that is headquartered in France, or has significant business in France
2. Local companies that have business cooperation with French companies
Duration
6 months – 2 years working abroad, can be extended once for a maximum of 2 years, once the VIE contract ends, the volunteer can change the contract to a normal employee.
How does VIE work exactly?
If young talents who meet the conditions want to work in other countries (the countries currently supported by this program include China, India, Poland, Slovakia, Argentina, Mexico, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Japan, and the United States, etc.), he must first submit an application to Business France. After submission, you can go to a website called mon volontariat internationale to find job opportunities for VIE candidates. I just went to this website to have a look, there are currently 2103 open positions. The positions cover procurement, sales, finance, production, quality, R&D, and other fields.
Compensation
Because this contract is signed with Business France and not with the company, it does not follow the local income tax regulation, so we call employee income compensation (not wages).
Basic compensation：€723.99/month data from 2020. （The amount will be adjusted every year based on index）
Regional compensation：€600 to €4,300 /month ，data from 2020.
As the VIE members go to missions in different countries with different distances from home and the condition varies, the regional compensation can make a big difference.
Who’s the winner?
Company – Through such a trustworthy program, the company can easily obtain foreign employees without paying wages, social security, etc.
Employees-Employees can easily travel and work in other countries at a young age with a high-paying, guaranteed job. After the two-year period expires, they can choose to become a regular employee without any restrictions.
Business France – The organization can use this program to promote the development of French business all over the world, why not!
As of the end of 2018, statistics show that since the program was launched, there have been 77,000 young VIE employees working in 7,000 companies abroad, and they are located in 118 countries.
A job example：
A 2-year job opportunity in Weifang, China is described in the below screenshot, with a monthly salary of 2381 Euros (18,000 Chinese yuan), which is a lot according to Chinese living standards!
If you have an EEA passport and are interested in working in China (or any other country), you can apply to this program to go work and travel there for a period of time after graduation, as well as learn the local culture about work and life. What do you think?
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More articles about working in Belgium:
How to read your payslip in Belgium?
How can you spend the 250 euro eco cheques?
Tas refund in Belgium – Optimise your income tax
Health insurance, are you using it to its full potential?
All the paid holidays you might have missed in Belgium
Back to school – working student in Belgium
Fun facts about divorces in Belgium
References：
https://mon-vie-via.businessfrance.fr/
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