Engineering apprenticeships

Apprenticeship makes émule.... According to Les Echos, becoming an ingénieur through apprenticeship is now possible.

This type of career path is gaining ground. One after the other, two leading écoles, Centrale Nantes and Télécom ParisTech, have just announced a spécific scheme. Centrale Nantes is opening à its engineering management énéraliste apprenticeship program to some twenty students from élèves from the Centrale-Supélec competitive entrance examination, thus offering a course of study hitherto éunheard of among post-baccalaureate engineering écolleges. A dozen companies (Altran, EDF, Faurecia, GDF-Suez, IBM, Vinci…) are backing the initiative. The curriculum includes an eighteen-month sandwich course (one month in a company, the other école), three months école abroad and fifteen months of individual training. For its part, Télécom ParisTech is also launching its apprenticeship scheme, which will lead to the sameéengineering diploma as its initial training. Access is granted to students of apprenticeship who have acquired a licence pro or a DUT in engineering through this route. In both cases, tuition is free of charge and the training is regular (from 60 à 100% of the minimum wage). As an added bonus, the apprentice quickly acquires the status of a « diplomaémé expérimenté » with the host company. « This type of career path is perfectly in line with the objective of social openness of the grandes écoles », emphasizes Patrick Chedmail, Director of Centrale Nantes.

Source les Echos - 04/2010