Work-study or internship: which should you choose?
It all depends on your project and your budget. Work-study is an employment contract: you are an employee, paid throughout its duration, and your tuition fees are funded by the company and its skills operator (OPCO). An internship, on the other hand, remains a temporary period in a company, under student status, which leaves room for other experiences.
Pay, fees, status: what changes
Pay is what most concretely sets the two paths apart. On a work-study basis, you receive a salary throughout the contract, whether it's an apprenticeship contract or a professionalisation contract, and your tuition fees are covered by the company hosting you and its skills operator (OPCO), a point that weighs as much as the salary itself in the choice. An internship, on the other hand, can also be paid, but this pay never funds your studies: at best it remains extra income while you continue to pay your tuition fees.
Status changes just as much as budget does. Signing a work-study contract means acquiring employee status within the company, with the rights and obligations that entails, whereas staying on the standard course keeps student status, including during the internship periods that punctuate the programme. Duration differs too: a work-study placement is a long immersion, from 12 to 24 months depending on the contract, whereas internships are spread throughout the programme, in several periods whose number and timing vary by programme. For the details of contracts and their funding, work-study contracts at Excelia Business School answer point by point.
Day to day: two very different rhythms
On a work-study basis, the year is split between school and the company: it means juggling two timetables at once. This rhythm varies from one programme to another, but Excelia Business School always specifies it before the contract is signed, so the choice is made with full knowledge of the facts. This organisation, a demanding one, calls for an adjustment that the standard course does not require in the same way, even though it too gets you used to combining lessons with a company experience from the outset of your studies.
The standard course, for its part, keeps university holidays and more time to prepare for exams, which also leaves room, depending on the programme, for a period abroad or a commitment mission, two experiences that fit less easily into a work-study student's timetable. No rhythm is in itself the best: it depends on the programme you are aiming for, and that is exactly what each programme page details.
Which profile for which path
Work-study suits those who want to fund their studies and enter the workforce quickly: it favours faster entry into employment, driven by the experience gained in the field. In return, it requires finding a host company, and some programmes already require prior work experience to apply. Conversely, the standard course leaves time to study and to multiply experiences, commitment mission, period or internship abroad, without the constraint of securing a contract beforehand.
Between the two, it is often budget that tips the balance: our study cost simulator helps you estimate what each path concretely changes for you, work-study included.
This is nothing new at Excelia Business School: the Master in Management (Programme Grande École) has been offered as an apprenticeship since 1997. In both cases, the school supports the search for an internship or a work-study placement, prepares you for applications and provides support throughout the period in the company, without guaranteeing a placement: see internships and support towards employment, or, if you are aiming for a master's cycle, how to prepare a Master in work-study.