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Student industrial placements

in the French system of engineering education

The framework of French higher scientific education

Universities and Grandes Ecoles

Scientific and technical higher education in France is developed within two main types of higher education institutions :

Universities : they offer study programmes in the different scientific fields, leading to corresponding degrees :

DEUG and Licence (2 and 3 year first cycle programmes )

Maîtrise (1 year programme after the Licence)

DESS (1 year specialized programme after the Maîtrise)

DEA (1 year research oriented programme after the Maîtrise, preparing for the doctorate thesis) + Doctorate (3-4 years research work concluded by the presentation of a thesis)

Engineering Schools, so called Grandes Ecoles d’Ingénieurs which are institutions with a long standing tradition : they offer engineering programmes that combine scientific education and technical and applied training,, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences. They award the following engineering degree - Diplôme d’Ingénieur, after 5 years of post-secondary school study which entitles the graduate to use the title of Ingénieur Diplômé (Graduate Engineer) which is protected by law.

There are over 230 engineering schools, of which around 3/4 are public institutions. If many Grandes Ecoles (such as Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Centrale, Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées) were established in the nineteenth or even the eighteenth century outside the framework of universities, the opposition between the Grandes Ecoles and Universities has become nowadays a bit schematic, since a wide range of engineering schools has been more recently set up within the universities themselves and extensive institutes somewhat similar to foreign technological universities (INP, INSA, Universités de Technologie) have been created.

Technology-oriented programmes

Another range of technologically oriented programmes are also provided by following higher education institutions

IUT (Instituts Universitaires de Technologie) awarding the Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie (University degree in technology) of 2 years duration;

IUP (Instituts Universitaires Professionnalisés), awarding the title of Ingénieur-Maître (not accredited by the CTI) after 4 years of study and the intermediate degrees (DEUG, Licence, Maîtrise).

Some specific features of the French system of engineering education

A competitive system of admission

Competition and selection are strongly connected to French engineering education. Engineering schools attract the best students with a scientific background. Selection occurs

either by the competitive examinations at the end of 2 years of preparatory classes (leading to the most prestigious engineering schools)

or immediately after the scientific Baccalauréat (French certificate of end of secondary studies), based on students’grades and interviews

or after a few university years or a first IUT degree

Through this entrance selective system, dropout rates are very low.

Five year engineering curricula leading to the Engineering Degree

The awarding of the engineering degree (Diplôme d’Ingénieur) corresponds to the completion of a 5 year engineering curriculum, though different study schemes are possible, mainly in

- Schools with a five year engineering programme, recruiting at the Baccalauréat-level

- Schools with a three-year engineering programme, recruiting on competitive nation-wide entrance examination after two years of classes préparatoires (intensive preparatory courses in basic sciences provided by some French lycées after the Baccalauréat)

- Schools with a three-year engineering programme recruiting after a two-year university programme in sciences (DEUG) or technology (DUT)

In the 1990’s New Engineering Programmes (NFI - Nouvelles Formations d’Ingénieurs), alternating academic courses and long training (around 2 years) in companies have been created to train more technologically oriented engineers. They are also of a 5 year duration and lead to the same engineering degree.

The granting of the engineering degree entitles the graduate to use the professional title of Ingénieur Diplômé (Graduate Engineer) which is protected by law. All engineering programmes leading to this title have to be accredited by the "Commission des Titres d’Ingénieurs", a special committee controlled by the Minister of Education.

Active ties between engineering schools and companies

In the last 40 years, rich relationships have been developed between schools and companies, aiming at adapting the programmes to needs of the job market. They may lead to true parnerships between schools and companies : sponsoring student activities, forums and seminars, lending equipment, teaching by company representatives.

The creation in the 1990’s of the so called "Nouvelles Formations d’Ingénieurs - NFI" in which academic training alternates with 2 years training in companies is in line with the policy of a stronger connection between engineering schools and the industrial world.

Internships scheduled within the school curriculum are a common rule in most engineering programmes, if not all.

The role and organisation of industrial placements

An increasing emphasis on industrial placements

Developing industrial placements and implementing a more professionnally oriented education is a real trend today in France (e.g. launching in September 2000 of the Licence Professionnelle, creation of the IUP’s in 1991), not only in Engineering Schools. It is recognised that the access to practical experience during the studies improves employability through the acquisition of technical skills and personal development. Of course there may be problems to answer adequately an increasing demand for placements from students and higher education institutions.

The organisation of industrial placements in engineering schools

Typology

Internships are practically offered in all engineering schools and at least one internship is mandatory. The average total duration of internships in the engineering curriculum is of 28 weeks or 7 months, but there are big differences between engineering schools.The total duration o internships is between 15 and 30% of total study time and sometimes more than that.

Three main kinds of internships are organised by the schools :

observation or workman internship (also called execution, production or contact internship) : it takes place at the beginning of the studies, often during the summer vacations; the average duration is 4-6 weeks; it is mandatory in around 75% of the schools; the aim is often to give an engineering student a first contact with the social reality of a firm or a first view of a production process.

technician internship (also called faisability , methodology internship, industrial project) : it takes place in the second part of the engineering curriculum (2 years before the final degree); the duration is from 6 to 12 weeks; it is mandatory in 70% of the schools and highly recommended by the others; this internship is oriented on technical aspects, working methods, project elaboration, technical faisability studies.

the engineering internship (also called final project) : it takes place in the last year of the curriculum during the last months of the academic year (march-june); the average duration is 3 to 5 months, sometimes 12 months; it is mandatory in 92% of the schools and replaced in the other cases by a research project in a laboratory. The aim is to put the student in the situation of an engineer, facing the tasks and responsibilities which he will have to take in charge in his future employment.

Internships integrated in a pedagogical project

The various internships listed before are part of the study programme and follow one another in a pedagogical progression.

The quality of internships is important to get a degree : most schools give it a weight of 10 to 30% in the final grade, and some of them only give the degree after completion of the internships.

Organisation of internships

In almost 90% of engineering schools there is a person or a service specifically in charge of student placements (Responsable des stages). His role includes centralising companies placement offers, informing the students and helping them in their search for placements, establishing placement contracts, sometimes giving advice on student placements reports. However the organisation and orientation of student placements (schedule, duration, objectives) involve different members of the academic staff : director of studies, director of industrial or external relations, teaching staff.

The legal status of the trainee is linked to the mandatory nature of the placement :

when the placement is optional, an individual agreement may be concluded between the trainee and the company, bu this form of agreement does not give the legal guarantees corresponding to the student status neither to the employee status. This is one of the reasons that leads many schools to make industrial placement compulsory. Only a weak proportion of optional placements are accepted by firms.

when the placement is mandatory, a formal placement agreement ("convention de stage") has to be established between the firm and the engineering school with following advantages

the trainee remains under the responsibility and supervision of the school and keeps his student status.

the firms benefits from some tax reductions (apprenticeship tax)

the "convention de stage" defines the legal status of the student with regard to the tax department, social insurance and work law, the objectives and the subject of the placement, the allowance amount, the confidential aspect of the study and the nature of the final report.

placement allowances under 30% of the legal minimum salary (SMIC) are free of social charges; however for final study placements and projects, firms do pay the trainee at a much higher level which changes the status of the trainee who has to be affiliated to the employees social insurance.

A trend to develop industrial placements abroad

For the last years, the trend in French engineering schools is an expansion of student industrial placements abroad. A recent CEFI survey (last term 1999) shows that among 137 respondent schools, 44% did send half of their students abroad for a placement and that nearly 1/3 had made placements abroad compulsory. Placements abroad are considered an important experience particularly from the point of view of student personal development with an emphasis on the acquisition of linguistic and intercultural skills.