Can you work while studying?
Yes: a student job can be combined with a demanding programme and is an experience worth highlighting. At Excelia Business School, it can enrich an admissions application or an internship application, just like a student society commitment. It also allows you to develop practical skills: independence, organisation, a sense of responsibility. Work-study goes further by building professional experience directly into the programme.
What a student job gives you, beyond the pay
A student job counts as genuine extra-curricular experience, on a par with a student society commitment or a period abroad: it shows initiative that companies look for in an internship application, since it proves that you know how to organise yourself and stick to a commitment over time.
The same instinct applies at admission, whether you arrive straight after the baccalaureate or through direct entry, which is reserved for those who have already earned a higher education qualification. In the latter case, base your project on concrete experiences, such as an internship or a student job: a clear project reassures a panel about your maturity far better than a purely academic file. At the Excelia Business School admissions interview, being able to talk about what you have experienced counts at least as much as your marks, student job included.
This same dynamic applies if you are coming from abroad: working part-time while studying is common practice in France, and speaking French will help you find a job, particularly in smaller cities.
The precise rules, in particular the number of hours and the special case of international students, come under employment law and residence permit regulations, not the school: the Being a student in employment page, from the Ministry of Higher Education, sets them out in detail.
Combining a job with your programme at Excelia Business School
At Excelia Business School, a professional activity carried out alongside your studies, outside work-study, is one of the commitments that the school recognises, whatever your programme and year. This recognition leads to the recognition of student engagement, which details all the situations concerned.
A student commitment can be valued in your pathway, notably because it allows you to develop useful skills such as independence, organisation, taking initiative or teamwork. It can also be a real asset in an application for an internship, a work-study placement or a first job.
Certain particular situations, such as high-level sport or student entrepreneurship, may also receive specific support, depending on the schemes provided by the school and each student’s situation.
Being paid while you study: the other routes
Work-study goes further than a student job: it gives you employee status, with a salary paid throughout the contract, and your tuition fees are covered by the company hosting you or by its skills operator. It is the scheme that most changes the financial equation of a pathway; find out more about work-study contracts at Excelia Business School.
An internship can also be paid, but this pay remains a supplementary income that never funds the programme, unlike work-study.
In practice, funding a pathway rarely relies on a single source:
- Family savings, the household’s contribution
- Paid internships, which ease the budget during the programme
- Need-based scholarships, paid via the Crous
- Student loan, adjusted to the remaining amount to be funded
To find out how much you need, our study fees simulator gives you a personalised estimate based on your campus and your accommodation.
It remains to choose between the two paid routes, which depends mainly on your project and your budget: choosing between work-study and an internship compares the criteria that matter most.