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The “Cordées de la Réussite” is a national-level program run by the French Ministry of Higher Education and local education authorities, designed to make career guidance a real lever for equal opportunity. The aim is to fight self-censorship and encourage students’ academic ambitions through continuous support from 8th grade through to high school and higher education. During the 2022-2023 academic year, 915 Cordées were rolled out across France, and more than 180,000 students were supported by nearly 22,000 mentor students from business schools, engineering schools, universities, etc.

A “Cordées de la Réussite” partner since 2021, IÉSEG welcomed 70 students this year, from middle schools in Roubaix and Douchy-les-Mines, as well as from a high school in Carvin. Over the course of an entire day, these middle and high school students discovered the School through a complete tour of the Lille campus, and were able to take part in individual and group workshops on motivation, softskills, etc. The Careers team led a workshop on motivation in school career choices.

Finally, the high-school students visited the IÉSEG Incubator and enjoyed an introduction to entrepreneurship, while the middle- school students attended a tailor-made course given by Thomas Leclercq, Head of the Marketing Department and professor at IÉSEG, who then had them work on a practical case involving the launch of a marketing campaign.

During lunch, a dozen or so IÉSEG students joined the 70 high-school students for an open discussion. They presented their academic backgrounds, talked about life at the school, and shared their future professional careers.

For Fatoumata CISSOKHO, Head of the “Equal Opportunities” project at IÉSEG, “the ‘Cordées de la Réussite’ are an essential step in the school careers of these middle and high school students, as it’s their first introduction to the world of higher education. These young people would never have imagined joining a school like IÉSEG, for the simple reason that they have no knowledge of these programs and the opportunities they offer. It is therefore essential to open up the field of possibilities to them. With the Cordées de la Réussite, as with Télémaque and Article1, with which we are partners, IÉSEG is resolutely committed to the fight for equal opportunities in education and wants to make guidance a real driver for equal opportunities. Our aim is to anchor these initiatives in the long term, and as of next year, we will also be offering “Cordées” to schools in the Paris region, to enable them to discover our Paris-La Défense campus.”

Feedback from secondary school pupils and IÉSEG students was extremely positive.

“I didn’t know IÉSEG at all before this day, and I wasn’t that interested in higher education until now. I really enjoyed the presentations and explanations. I also liked the school’s emphasis on ecology. I especially liked the students’ involvement during lunchtime, so much so that I want to try and apply for this school when I’m in my final year of high school. Thank you for taking the time to show us around,” said a Carvin high school student.

For Inès BENMIMOUN, a student at IÉSEG who took part in the Cordées, “during this lunch with the high school and middle school students, I was delighted to be able to share with them the advice I would have liked to have received at their age. We had some fascinating discussions on very different subjects, and I’ve even kept in touch with some of them so I can talk to them over the long term. This event perfectly represents the values of IÉSEG, as well as the values of knowledge transmission and generosity, which are particularly close to my heart”.