ENGAGE in Paris

The participating companies partnered with the French Ministry of Education to set up an innovative year-long syllabus for school students from economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods involving the delivery of on-site visits, seminars, training and evaluation materials and one-to-one mentoring with scope to provide further support as needed.

The syllabus involves students, working in teams, studying and role-playing professionals at various stages of the life cycle of a mobile phone. Dassault Systemes introduce the students to designing a phone using 3D design software, DLA Piper cover the legal aspects such as property rights and SFR exposes students to sales and distribution.

As students are placed in direct contact with professionals from the participating companies throughout the syllabus, employees are able to share their experience and expertise with the students, the students are exposed to various careers and the project provides a direct link between the private and public sectors.

To further enhance the team-work aspect of the activities and to teach students practical team-building skills, the dynamics of each team are changed regularly. Additionally, to assist the students’ language skills, a number of educational videos are presented in English.

The activities give a strong flavour of all aspects of modern business, including how to use communications technology such as video conferencing.

Companies: DLA Piper, SFR, Dassault Systemes

Partners: IMS Entreprendre pour la Cité