Actions in favour of equal opportunities

In high schools and after

Programmes based on the model, Why not me?*

Participating schools:

Along with several other schools in the Conference of Grandes Écoles, the students of these four colleges participate for three years, from the second to last year, in the cultural outreach to promising high school students whose family and social situation constitute a handicap for access to higher education.

* Programme launched by ESSEC in 2002

PACE : Action and Cooperation for Education Programme

Participating school:

HEC Paris and the Fleur de Bitume association have developed this concrete field initiative since 2005. It aims to support high school students in ZEP (Priority Education Zones) from the second to last year, then during their first two years of higher education, irrespective of the chosen course of studies. This support programme places particular emphasis on the methodology, culture and opening to the business world and foreign languages.

Tremplin

Participating schools:

Founded by the students of École Polytechnique, the Tremplin association’s objective is to give young high school students their opportunity by providing them with support throughout their studies. Today it mobilises tutors from other ParisTech schools and the École Normale Supérieure as well as young professionals.

ReMiSol

Participating school:

ReMisol lets ENSTA ParisTech student engineers sponsor high school students from disadvantages zones to introduce them to the Grandes Ecoles and encourage them to prepare their entrance exam to the Grandes Ecoles.

Optim

Participating school:

Launched by Arts et Métiers ParisTech, the Optim system lets last year students, especially those who don’t intend to pursue their studies for various reasons, take advanced scientific and technical studies in a Technology University Institute (IUT) before preparing the entrance exam for the engineering schools. These students are not selected based on their academic record, but rather based on aptitude tests (logical and spatial vision), the results of which are compared to those of the class that entered Arts et Métiers ParisTech in 2002.

"Pilot" Preparatory Classes (ECT/ECE* branches)

Participating school:

In order to promote the integration of students from modest backgrounds in the Grandes Ecoles and, in particular, those from the technological stream, HEC put together an innovative project in 2007 by partnering with the National Education to create the first economics and business preparatory class, technology stream. The students in this class followed a programme that included tutoring and coaching, linguistic courses, intensive preparation seminars on the HEC campus and personalised financial support. Since 2007, three new classes of the same type have been opened at the Créteil and Versailles academies.

All of the students in the first class that benefited from this system, who attended the Midhelet de Vanves high school, enrolled in a business school in 2009. To date, more than 100 students have benefited from this system.

* ECT = economics and business studies, technology option

ECE = economics and business studies, economics option

Preparatory Classes for Higher Education (CPES)

Participating schools:

HEC Paris, through its Foundation, financially supports the initiative launched by the Henri IV high school, which opened at the beginning of the 2008 school year “a preparatory class for the preparatory classes” for scholarship students (CPES). This experimental class prepares some 30 deserving scholarship students for entry into higher education. In this context, the HEC Foundation finances 20 scholarships for these students until the end of their preparatory class studies.

Furthermore, five École Polytechnique students support the CPES preparatory students’ work fulltime, for 6 months, as part of the human relations course.

Support in preparatory classes

Participating schools:

Students support high school students in preparatory classes from suburban high schools, with a view to cushioning the educational and cultural shock and even overcoming temporary educational difficulties.

More specifically, in September 2010, ParisTech and the Janson de Sailly high school partnered to support 25 students towards success. As such the two institutions organised a course before the start of the new academic year in partnership with the École de Théâtre l’Eponyme. Tutoring sessions and oral expression seminars are included in the programme throughout the year.

Mécatronique Project

Participating school:

MINES ParisTech’s Mécatronique project is based on an innovative educational method that has high school students preparing pre-Baccalaureate or BTS (vocational training certificate taken after 18 years old) cooperating with MINES ParisTech students.

In the secondary and primary schools

École ouverte (Open school)

Participating schools:

Launched by the Ministry of National Education, this programme aims to facilitate the educational success and social integration of young people, by making secondary schools and high schools areas of learning and practicing citizenship, especially on Wednesdays (a non-school day in French schools) and during the school holidays.

Zup de Co

Participating schools:

Several students from these schools participate in the activities of Zup de Co, an association created in March 2005 based on voluntary work. The purpose of Zup de Co is to stimulate, support and develop young people from disadvantaged families so they become participants in tomorrow’s society. In this context, it offers free educational support to secondary students and an opportunity to discover professions.

Expérience Ouverture (Outreach Experience)

Participating school:

École des Ponts ParisTech and Développonts (a “solidarity association” the School’s student-engineers created in 2001) offer secondary school students in Seine et Marne a tutoring programme oriented towards openness to culture, science and techniques. A scientific or technical theme will structure the programme every year. Water will be the unifying theme for the first edition in 2009/2010. The meetings will be an opportunity for exchanges with tutors, cultural activities and discoveries of Ile-de-France’s technical and scientific heritage and the School’s laboratories.

La main à la pâte (A helping hand)

Participating schools:

The initiative of Georges Charpak, 1992 Nobel Prize in physics: the goal of this programme is to renovate the teaching of science and technology in the primary school by encouraging teaching based on a scientific investigation approach.

La main à la pâte recommends an approach based on scientific learning, language mastery and education in citizenship. There are many participants including the student-engineers of ESPCI ParisTech and École Polytechnique.

Auteuil Foundation

Participating school:

The Auteuil Foundation’s core mission remains the prevention and protection of young people in highly disadvantaged environments, from 6 to 21 years old, based on courses that take into account each person’s aptitudes. The tutoring provided concerns educational and orientation tasks as well as support for young people in their boarding school activities and their personal adolescent training.