Placements

Internships and placements at companies form an integral part of an engineering student’s education at Centrale Lyon. Internships allow them to gain direct, personal experience in the real world of business and the engineering profession.

The engineering student spends an average of nine months at a company, split into periods ranging from four weeks to six months. This professional experience acts as a gateway to the labour market and often leads to a student’s first job.

Operations placement

The operations placement occurs at the end of the first year and aims to give the student a hands-on experience of how a company operates, how work is performed and how the operators and managers interact.
This placement consists of performing the work of an operator along with a team during a minimum of four weeks. It is an integral part of the syllabus and is an enriching experience for an engineering student’s growth as a professional and member of society.

This placement has two educational goals:

  • discover the business world, since the operations internship for the majority of students is their first proper experience in a company;
  • actively participate in an operations group.

This experience is fundamental for learning about the nature, workings and limitations in the performance of work, as well as about the relationship between operators and other actors in the company, including engineers. For many students, it is a rare opportunity to gain direct contact with operational work without being burdened by the responsibility for it. This placement is therefore highly instructive for students, who may exercise organisational and supervisory functions in the future.

For more information, contact Nicolas Hourcade or Olivier Bareille.

Applied placement

LearningLab travail en mode projet

The applied placement is taken at the end of second year and lasts a minimum of three months. It must be completed by the start of the following academic year. As a follow-on to the operations placement, this internship also forms an integral part of a student’s studies and helps advance the professional and social skills of the student.

The objective of the applied placement is to unveil the engineering professions to students by way of active immersion in a team of engineers. The duties taken on and the work performed over a relatively short period match what is required of an entry-level engineer. It is also the opportunity to put into practice the knowledge and skills acquired at Centrale Lyon.

This placement can be carried out in various professions, according to the student’s own career ambitions: production, design, control, quality, IT, modelling, standardisation, maintenance, applied research, development, logistics, consulting services, etc.

For more information, contact Nicolas Hourcade or Olivier Bareille.

Final-year dissertation (TFE)

Accueil TFE 2017

The final-year dissertation is the culmination of the engineering student’s education at École Centrale de Lyon.

For the engineering degree to be conferred on the student, the dissertation from the final placement must be of a sufficient standard. This stage is designed to demonstrate the student’s ability to apply the skills acquired over the course of their academic life and present a high-quality work worthy of a Centrale Lyon engineer.

The work submitted at the end of the placement must offer conclusive results from the perspective of the company or laboratory in which the student worked. These results are assessed through the quality of the work done during the placement, the written dissertation and its oral defence before a Centrale Lyon examination board which acts as the student’s final exam.

For more information, contact Arnaud Bréard.

The placement office of the Business Relations and Development Department is the point of contact between students, teachers and companies. It receives and posts placement offers as well as graduate job vacancies.