Les Cordées: a new series of workshops to strengthen the soft skills of young people from the priority neighbourhoods
A programme to support deserving young people from priority neighbourhoods
The Parcours d’Excellence (Paths to Excellence) are a programme of support for young people enrolled in the Cordée Schools from the 3rd grade (Year 10 in the UK and ninth grade in the US) to the baccalaureate (A levels in UK and high school diploma in the US). They aim to encourage discovery and understanding of student life and higher education by offering visits to universities, corporate events, cultural stays and personal development workshops on the campus of MBS.
Each year, 75 new pupils join the scheme at the start of the school year. “The aim of this scheme is to promote social diversity, demystify excellence in education and to present the keys to professional success to young people. The goal is not to introduce them to MBS, but to make them discover the whole spectrum of possible curriculums,” explains Benjamin Ferran, Head of Diversity and CSR.
Keeping high school students in the plan
While they were created for secondary school pupils from priority neighbourhoods, the Parcours d’Excellence will undergo a transformation this year by including a series of workshops for high school students as well. “This new concept is based on student volunteering and the aim is to keep the young people in this scheme to contribute as much as possible to the success of their studies“, explains Sophie Fournials, Social Openness Project Manager at MBS.
A series of workshops has thus been designed: “Communicate better to better convince” and “Know yourself better to get a better guidance”. These exercises focus on the development of soft skills and self-knowledge. “In parallel, we are planning campus visits to the faculties of medicine, law and the School of Journalism so that these students, who currently have to make their choice of orientation, can project themselves in the future. We have also planned a visit to Sanofi for those who are considering a career in engineering, but also to introduce them to the world of business“, says Sophie.
“A real opportunity to train for baccalaureate exams”
On Wednesday, March 11th, several high school pupils of all levels went to the workshop and public speaking given by Franck Dompietrini: “The objective is to share advice that will be useful to them at school, during their journey but also in life. These workshops allow a close exchange of ideas, using the rules of individual coaching to enable them to develop their verbal and non-verbal skills, their charisma and their listening skills ».
Dalal, who is in first grade (Year 12 in the UK, eleventh grade in the YS), sees that participating in this workshop has also a very short term objective: “I will have to take the first oral exams for the Baccalaureate this year, and this workshop is a real opportunity to train for the exam“, she explains. As for Kawtar, who is the second grade (Year 11 in the UK, tenth grade in the US), she is already thinking about her options for next year. : “I attend these workshops also to train. Next year, I’m going to choose the scientific subjects in order to later join the Faculty of Medicine. Whether by visiting the campus, or through these coaching workshops, it gives us a good taste of what we’ll experience later“, she concludes.
NB: the workshops are postponed to a later date due to Covid-19.
