“Grandes écoles” and professional integration: the CGE releases its annual study

Launched between January and March 2023 by 194 “Grandes écoles” (a small group of renowned schools in France) members of the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles (CGE), this 31^st study about the professional integration of graduates from these schools was made during the first quarter, with each participating school ensuring the collection of data for its institution with the support for the École nationale de la statistique et de l’analyse de l’information (ENSAI).

The survey was initially launched by the CGE and focuses on the “valuation on the labour market of training courses taught in French ‘grandes écoles’ through the employment of graduates”. The objective is to measure the employability of graduates in the months following their graduation. The scope of the study covers all graduates of the last three classes at Master’s level.

Very good professional integration

No less than 100,557 surveys were used. The CGE says that’s a “wide mobilisation” allowing through the “scale of samples analysed” to obtain “highly reliable results”.

These results show a “very good professional integration of graduates from the class of 2022”. And figures confirm this:

• the high net employment rate: 90.5%, up 0.7 point on the previous survey. Only 8.3% of students are looking for work;
• rapid employment after graduation: more than eight out of ten graduates in employment (86.6%) were recruited less than two months after completing their studies. The CGE even notes that for some of them, an employment contract was signed even before graduation;
• uniformity of employment: employment is rapid for all types of school and for both women and men (even if there are disparities in salary in particular);
• good employment conditions: employment conditions are very good, with most jobs being permanent, with executive status and high salaries;
• a high satisfaction rate: graduates say they are very satisfied (87.9%) with their jobs.

Engineers on the lead

In detail, if we analyse indicators more closely, we can see that even though the net employment rate of all graduates (already high last year) is maintained above pre-2021 crisis levels (90.5%), there are variations depending on schools.

Indeed, notes the CGE, only engineers have seen their net employment rate increase significantly, up 2 points in one year to 93.1%. For graduates of other specialities, this level is stable (86.0%, +0.1 point) and for managers, it has fallen slightly (87.7%, -0.9 point).

As far as recruitment conditions are concerned, “the improvement seen last year is continuing”. Employment is rapid after graduation for all types of school: more than eight out of ten graduates in employment were recruited in less than two months. Similarly, the proportion of permanent jobs continues to rise (+3.7 points). This level stands at 88.1% for managers (+3.1 points), slightly lower for engineers (87.1% +4.4 points), but as the CGE points out, “it is much lower for graduates of schools in other specialities”, as is usually the case (65.2%, +1.2 point). The proportion of managerial jobs remains high (87.4%, +1.3 points) and even exceeds 90% for engineers.

A focus on mobility

The CGE survey focuses on international students, indicating that 12.8% of the 2022 graduates who responded to the survey are of foreign nationality. Specifically, 13.8% are European Union nationals and 86.2% are non-EU nationals.

In the overall ranking, taking all nationalities together (EU and non-EU), Moroccan nationals are the most represented (28,4%), before Chinese nationals (12,1%). And the list continues as follow:

• Italy (5.6%),
• Cameroon (4.9%),
• India (4.5%),
• Tunisia (4.4%),
• Brazil and Senegal (3.1%),
• Algeria and Ivory Coast (2.5%),
• Lebanon, Germany and Spain (2.4%).

Conversely, about outward mobility, the study shows that 1 French national graduate out of 9 (11.1%) is employed abroad. But, according to the CGE, “the share of jobs abroad is slightly decreasing”, with the most marked recess for managers (14.1%). The Conference notes that they are still more inclined to work in an employment abroad than engineers (along with graduates from schools in other specialities). Whatever their field, most of them (44.6%) chose Europe to work there, even though China attracts 6.3% of expatriates.

Find out more: 

• General presentation of the survey