ESSEC offers its students a variety of
opportunities to gain valuable professional experience, not only pure academic
understanding of business. Moreover, it is required for a student to validate
at least 18 months of professional experience before graduation. Among classical
work opportunities for students such as internships, ESSEC, as well as some
other French business schools, offers a very attractive option called an apprenticeship.
Apprenticeship is a contract between a
student, the school and an employer, lasting for 2 years. During this period, the
student combines studying at the school and working for the employer. The position
is considered to be full-time, and thus is treated even more valuable than an internship
on the student’s CV. The reason is because working as an apprentice the student
has an opportunity to be exposed to more long-term projects than any intern.
Apprenticeship offers different scheduling options:
for example, the student can work for 6 months and study for next 6 months, or they
may work for 3 days per week while other 2 are dedicated for the courses. The
schedule is absolutely flexible, as is the whole ESSEC curriculum. Furthermore, the
employer covers all of the student’s tuition fees and pays a monthly salary as
well. It is an excellent opportunity to both finance your studying and gain
valuable professional experience.
Of course, the decision to follow the
apprenticeship has to be considered very carefully. It is a 2-year contract,
which means that student should be absolutely sure about selected area and a
position – it is extremely difficult to break a contract. Therefore, most of
the ESSEC students join companies as apprentices after one or two internships.
In addition, one may say that it is
absolutely necessary to speak French fluently since the apprenticeship program
is available only in French companies. However, from my personal perspective,
as a person who didn’t speak good French and still managed to get an
apprenticeship offer – nothing is impossible. In my case, a large French bank
had a position that required a candidate, on the contrary, to be able to work in English due to the international exposure of the department, and so French
proficiency was not mandatory.
To sum up, an apprenticeship is an excellent
opportunity for any student who is looking for long-term corporate experience and/or
financial assistance during their studies.
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