Work-study

Work-study at Excelia Business School

At Excelia Business School, work-study is followed through an apprenticeship contract or a professionalisation contract, in the private sector as in the public sector. The school is one of the pioneers of this track among business schools: since 1997, its Master in Management (Programme Grande École) has also been available through apprenticeship, and this expertise has since extended to other programmes.

Signing this contract concretely changes your status: you become an employee of the host company, while remaining enrolled at Excelia Business School, on one of its La Rochelle, Tours, Orléans or Paris-Cachan campuses. You then live with two timetables, that of the student and that of the employee, which you have to learn to make work together.

Two misconceptions are worth setting aside before going any further. The first is to believe that this rhythm is improvised: on the contrary, it is known before you sign your contract, designed so that classes and the company coexist without clashing, and each programme sets it out in advance. The second is to think that work-study would be a fallback option, reserved for the least equipped profiles, when it is in fact the opposite: combining professional responsibilities with a full course of study is demanding, and it is a choice made deliberately, for what it brings to your course. To place this choice among the other forms of professionalisation, our approach to professionalisation sets work-study within the whole scheme.

Which programmes, at what level

Work-study is available across Excelia Business School's programmes, from Bachelor's to Master's level. It applies just as much to the Bachelor in Business as to a work-study master's in a business school such as the Master in Management, a pioneer of the scheme since 1997, or indeed a work-study MSc among the Master of Science (MSc) programmes.

We do not give an exhaustive list of specialisations or rhythms here, because they differ from one programme to another and change from one year to the next: it is each programme's page that details them, with its precise work-study calendar and the corresponding length of time spent immersed in the company.

If your plans are taking you towards a sales, finance or management career, one of these programmes is likely to suit your profile; it is then best to check its page to verify the conditions for access to work-study, rather than relying on a general rule that would not hold true for any of them.

What work-study changes for you

On work-study, tuition fees are covered by the host company or by its skills operator (OPCO), and you receive remuneration for the whole duration of your contract. This is the question families ask most often: do you pay the school anyway? And the answer is no: it is the company, not you, that funds your training at Excelia Business School.

To find out what remains concretely your responsibility once tuition is covered (accommodation, transport, everyday life), you can estimate your study costs with our simulator, which distinguishes what is covered by the company from what remains within your budget.

Beyond funding, work-study also transforms your course: you become an employee, with the rights that this status entails, and you add to your CV genuine professional experience even before you graduate. It is also an opportunity to build a professional network within the host company and understand its codes from the inside, an asset that extends the support towards employment offered throughout your training.