The EDHEC International BBA creates Sustainable Impact Projects to prepare students to tackle the challenges of tomorrow’s world
Based on resolving practical cases and aligned with the “learning by doing approach”, the first-year project of the EDHEC International BBA is set to acquire a new dimension and be fully devoted to societal issues as from the start of the 2021-2022 academic year.
The first-year project is aligned with the learning by doing approach advocated by the EDHEC International BBA in Lille and Nice. The group project, which runs throughout the academic year, allows students to respond collectively to varied economic and societal problems and to apply their personal skills and notions learned in class.
Geared to building career skills, these projects enable students to assimilate methods of thinking and collaborative working that will be needed in their future professional environment. Two projects serve as examples: Le Petit Soldat Rose, which mobilises future graduates around the question of day-to-day handicap, and Kuiri, which was initially devoted to the discovery of the world’s culinary heritage, but subsequently switched its objective to helping restaurant owners increase their visibility during the health crisis.
Understanding societal issues: Sustainable Impact Projects
The EDHEC International BBA is now refocusing its first-year projects around societal and environmental issues. These future practical Sustainable Impact Projects will henceforth be fully devised with references to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Emphasis will be placed particularly on the themes of health and well-being, education, gender equality, the reduction of inequalities and the environment.
Starting in September 2021, over 900 students on the Lille and Nice campuses will be involved in a spectrum of more than 150 Sustainable Impact Projects.
These projects, which will all have the status of not-for-profit association, will be conducted in small groups of 5 to 6 students supervised by academic tutors. They will run throughout the first year of the programme. The future graduates will be invited to handle a number of tasks, including finding sponsors, organising fund-raisings or drawing up a digital communications strategy to raise the profile of the issue and the association set up to tackle it.
At the end of the year, the quality of the Sustainable Impact Projects will be assessed by a jury, with a prize awarded to the best one. The prize-winning project, together with the most emblematic, will then be presented to students of the next class year to help inspire them and encourage their creativity for their own first-year projects.
“In the wake of our Impact Future Generations 2025 strategic plan, we want to accelerate development of our students’ skills in matters of sustainable development, diversity and inclusion. By creating these Sustainable Impact Projects for the first year of our International BBA, we are directly connecting these projects to the UN’s goals. In doing so, we are responding to our students’ desire for their academic studies to have meaning, while also anticipating the needs of businesses for managers and leaders possessing greater awareness of how their future strategic choices will impact society”
explains Alessia Di Domenico, Director of the EDHEC International BBA.
