Internships and work-study contracts

Conducted at the end of 1st year, the execution internship is designed to introduce students to the workings of a company, the nature of execution work and the relationships between operators and managers. The internship involves working with a team of operators for a minimum of four weeks. It is an integral part of the school curriculum and an enriching experience for the professional and human training of engineering students.

The pedagogical objectives of this internship are twofold:

• Discover the corporate world, since for many students, the execution internship is the first lasting experience in a company;
• Participate actively in an execution work group.

This experience is fundamental for getting to know the nature, workings and constraints of execution work, as well as the relationships forged by operators with other components of the company, particularly engineers. For many students, it's one of the rare opportunities to have direct contact with the work being carried out, without being invested with any authority. This internship is therefore particularly instructive for engineering students, destined to perform organizational and supervisory functions.

Practical details of the application internship:

Conducted at the end of 2nd year, the application internship lasts a minimum of 3 months and must be completed by the start of the following academic year. Complementary to the execution internship, the application internship is also an integral part of the curriculum, helping to shape students both professionally and humanely.
 

The aim of the application internship is to introduce students to the engineering professions through active integration into an engineering team. Over a relatively short period of time, the function performed and the work carried out correspond to what is required of an engineer at the start of his or her career. It is also an opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired at Centrale Lyon.

This internship can be carried out in a variety of professions, depending on the student's career plan: production, design, controls, quality, IT, modeling, standardization, maintenance, applied research, development, logistics, consulting services, etc.

Practical details of the application internship:

The Césure is a program designed to meet the needs of engineering students who wish to extend their studies by gaining additional experience in France or abroad. It takes place after the S8 semester (end of 2nd year), can only take place once during the course and can take the form of either a "césure conventionnée" or a sabbatical year.

The "césure conventionnée" consists of one or more periods in a company, in France or abroad, for a minimum total duration of 10 months. One of these periods may correspond to a semester at a foreign university that is not a partner of the École. Periods spent in a company are similar to an internship, or an activity linked to the engineering training under an employment contract. They give rise to an assessment and a report by the student. The internship(s) carried out may replace (under certain conditions) the application internship at the end of 2nd year. Carried out entirely or partly abroad, it can be an opportunity to validate the minimum 3-month international mobility requirement for graduation.

Practical details of the gap year internship:

The final internship is the culmination of Centrale de Lyon's student-engineer training program. From a pedagogical point of view, validation of this final internship is a prerequisite for the award of the engineering diploma. This final stage must demonstrate the student's ability to apply the skills acquired during his or her studies to produce work of the standard expected of a Centrale engineer.

The work produced during the internship must therefore lead to convincing results from the point of view of the company or laboratory hosting the intern. These results are judged by the quality of the work carried out at the internship site, the written report and the oral presentation on the École's premises, which constitutes the final test of an engineering student's schooling.

A genuine opportunity for recruiting future employees, the TFE leads more than half the time to hiring.

Methods of the TFE:

To gain professional experience, student engineers can also opt for the professionalization contract route in their third year, or specialize from the start of the curriculum through a sandwich course.

To meet demand from companies, Centrale Lyon's generalist engineering training is open to professionalization contracts. During their 3rd year, student engineers are salaried employees of a company, alternating between periods at the École (400h) and periods in the company.