What is the Franco-German Youth Office?

The Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO) is an independent international organisation for Franco-German cooperation. On its own initiative, or working with its numerous partners, it organises exchange programmes for young people in the areas of school, university study, work and leisure. 
Historically, it goes back to the Franco-German friendship treaty of 1963, the ‘Élysée Treaty’.

There are currently around 75 people working for the FGYO.

The FGYO wants to maintain and deepen Franco-German relations. It seeks to encourage all young people to familiarise themselves with the respective partner language, and to grow interculturally. It also serves as a clearing-house to other countries, passing along the experiences of the Franco-German youth exchange and work on behalf of peace; in this regard, it also aims to strengthen democracy and the European idea.

You can learn more about the FGYO partners and their projects in the Partner directory, under Calls for projects and applications and on the Network map.

The FGYO seeks to keep participation in exchange programmes as open as possible to all young people, and the bureaucratic burden as low as possible. You will find the precise conditions of participation on the sub-page for each programme. If you have any questions, please contact the FGYO or the responsible partner institution.

Many questions are answered on the sub-page of the Brigitte Sauzay Programme and in the corresponding FAQs.

You will find more information about the Franco-German Volunteer Service here.

You will find position openings among the  Job postings on the FGYO website, under the heading ‘Work with a partner’. The relevant programme page features a list of all institutions that receive a grant from the FGYO for participation in the programme.

Consult the current job postings on the FGYO website and simply send your application to candidaturestage@ofaj.org. 

The FGYO offers a variety of language-support programmes. Consult the list of available programmes and choose the one that best suits your objectives. 

No, but the FGYO promotes French courses for children and adolescents. These courses are offered by a variety of partner organisations, such as town-twinning committees, clubs or schools. The various French courses are geared to participants’ age and language level.

Do you have any other questions about language courses?  Then contact the colleagues in the ‘Intercultural Training’ unit by sending an e-mail to sprachkurse@dfjw.org

Please contact the FGYO at stipendium-sprache@dfjw.org

Grant applications can be submitted either directly to the FGYO or to an accredited organisation such as an umbrella organisation or a school authority.

Projects funded by the FGYO are based on the principles of partnership-based cooperation between participating organisations and reciprocity of exchange.

Prerequisites for funding are the quality of the project and the aims defined in the project concept. The project must enable young people from Germany and France to get to know and meet each other, take the intercultural dimension of the encounter into account and provide for the active participation of young people.

As a rule, the partner at the location of which the first project phase is held submits the funding application for all project phases and all participants from Germany and France on behalf of both project sponsors. The application should be submitted not later than 3 months prior to the exchange, or within the deadlines shown on the programme page.

For further information, please refer to the FGYO Guidelines or search for programme formats that best suit your project idea. 

Please complete this online form. 

Proof of use consists of the following documents:

• Detailed report on the course of the project
• Detailed project programme
• List of participants and accompanying persons with original signatures
• Cost accounting with all project-related income and expenses (including receipts)
• Documents used to communicate about the project and the FGYO

You will find further information about the required documents and deadlines in the FGYO Guidelines.

To do this, consult the calls for applications. 

Observe the FGYO’s criteria for financial support for school exchanges and contact the responsible school authority directly.

If you have any questions or difficulties, please contact the ‘School Exchanges and Extracurricular Exchanges’ Department at +49 30 288 757 72.

The FGYO offers financial support for reciprocal school exchanges, with a wide selection of educational resources and networking opportunities. The prerequisite is the principle of reciprocity: The FGYO cannot fund class trips that do not include a reciprocal visit.

In this exchange, young people from Germany and France get together for a joint project in a place that is not their permanent residence (third location). They do not live with host families and are housed instead in a youth hostel, for example, or in a country home for school stays. 

You will find all the information you need on the FGYO website, under the ‘Organise a school or university exchange’ heading.

Are you looking for a partner institution in France? Then use our DOMINO online platform, which is specially designed for the arrangement of partner institutions.

Relevant information can be found on our website, under the ‘FGYO trilateral programmes’ heading.

IN projects are projects that represent ‘innovative, interdisciplinary and intercultural projects in the Franco-German school projects network’. IN projects are open to all school types offering intensive instruction and learning of the partner language. These are, in particular, schools with bilingual offerings, German-French grammar schools or schools with French lessons from the 5th grade onwards. 

The  FOKUS Programme is aimed at schools and clubs that organise Franco-German encounters between formal and non-formal educational institutions.

Detailed information on hosting volunteers can be found in the programme description of the Franco-German Volunteer Service as well as on the corresponding website. 

You would either apply for one of the positions posted in the ‘Work with a partner’ programme or submit an unsolicited application to the participating clubs and organisations. You may also submit an unsolicited application with a cover letter in French and CV in German and French to the FGYO. To learn more, visit the ‘Work with a partner’ page. 

Please get in touch with the colleagues in our ‘Communication and Events’ unit. The contact details can be found on the FGYO Organisation chart.