Career support at EDHEC: helping students plot their future careers without stress

Opening up the range of possibilities

Right from joining EDHEC, each student is supported by a career advisor who helps the student get to know themself better and to identify their strong points or areas for development: “When students arrive at the School, their career plans need to be developed and fine-tuned. They’re often uncertain about their future and we’re there to listen to what they have to say and to provide our expertise”. Through individual interviews, personality tests and personal development workshops, students do introspective work on themselves to determine what they want from their career, and are also encouraged to develop their curiosity and expand their horizons: “One of the Career Centre’s missions is to open up the range of possibilities. We’re there to inspire and guide the students and help them grow”, underlines Ann Leclair, Career Centre Director. 

Discovering the world of employment

As they progress in their studies, students discover particular professions and industries and the job market in general, through customised career preparation initiatives for industries or jobs, and in-company internships, which are mandatory right from the first year for all the School’s programmes. One specific feature of EDHEC Business School’s support programme lies in providing training for recruitment processes that are specific to the needs of certain sectors of activity, and for which students (BBA, Masters) are placed in role playing or simulated situations. To help them discover the world of employment, EDHEC students also reap the benefit of the School’s network of corporate partners and its alumni network, which comprises over 4,000 volunteer graduates, 22 professional clubs and a student-alumni mentoring programme. 

Offering customised support

In view of the diversity of aspirations harboured by students, the EDHEC Career Centre’s support system focuses on the individual. As Ann Leclair explains, “our approach is geared to customised support. 80% of our services are tailored to the individual student’s needs and career objectives, and we arrange over 10,000 individual appointments a year. Our advisors have a perfect grasp of both the market’s expectations and students’ aspirations.” At EDHEC, the surveys undertaken by the NewGen Centre  - the School’s centre of expertise focused on the behaviour and aspirations of today’s young generations – regularly shed more light on the professional expectations of today’s young generations. The NewGen Centre’s most recent publication notably highlighted the nature of young graduates’ professional goals, with 33% of respondents saying their objective was to acquire skills and develop personally and 31% replying that they were looking to contribute usefully to society. 

Joining the professional world  

Plugged in to the corporate world, the EDHEC Career Centre makes it easier for the School’s future graduates to find employment. The team arranges numerous recruitment events – such as the EDHEC Forum – and conveys some 66,000 internship offers and 35,000 job offers, 50% of which are based abroad. Keen to ensure an optimal student experience, the Career Centre supports all students on a customised basis, independently of their situation: “Adjustments can be made to the career support provided or during an internship if a student notifies us of a handicap”, specifies Ann Leclair. “The issue of handicap is closely followed by the Student Affairs department. The team is in direct contact with the students concerned, so as to notify them of job and internship offers and to invite them to dedicated recruitment events. Companies regularly arrange this kind of initiative – there are numerous recruitments – and they are sensitive to the issue of handicap and more generally to matters of diversity and inclusion. For our part, the Career Centre works with our corporate partners to organise events like the Handi Day, geared to raising our students’ awareness of the subject of handicap.”  

The work done by the Career Centre also serves to establish “close-knit” ties between students and the centre’s experts. As Ann Leclair underlines “Our advisors know the students well; they follow them throughout their studies and even later on in their careers! During this crucial period for them in higher education, our job is to give them the benefit of EDHEC’s expertise on the business world and provide them with a set of resources (workshops, tests, job boards, etc.), that enable them to plan for the future free of stress.”