Safran and Paris-Sud University sign partnership agreement

Jean-Luc Bérard, Safran's Executive Vice President for Human Resources, and Sylvie Retailleau, President of Paris-Sud University, today signed a partnership agreement to develop joint actions concerning the training and professional integration of young people.

After signing 17 agreements with engineering schools, Safran is diversifying its range of partnerships to address a broader public, by signing its second agreement with a university. Both Safran and Paris-Sud are major players in the Saclay cluster, a center of scientific excellence near Paris, which makes this local collaboration a logical step for both parties.

Paris-Sud University is one of the most prestigious research universities in Europe, and ranked among the Top 50 worldwide. Paris-Sud University has about 4,000 graduates yearly, most of whom will be entering the professional workplace. Of these graduates, about 1,000 will receive vocational degrees, over 2,200 master's degrees, 150 engineering degrees and more than 600 PhDs.

The three-year agreement between Safran and Paris-Sud University has a number of objectives:

• Enhance mutual understanding by bringing the research professors and Safran's staff closer together.
• Facilitate exchanges between Safran and the University, in particular by giving students an opportunity throughout their time in school (including post-graduate studies) to meet with Safran's operational and human resources staff.
• Detect and spotlight talented students who are motivated by Safran's business sectors and technologies.
• Contribute to a strategic analysis of how training should develop, based on Safran's participation in continuing education committees.
• Carry out joint actions to support hiring (forums, recruitment days, plant visits, workshops on drafting résumés and cover letters, etc).

The agreement also draws on support from the Ambassadors program, a network of Safran employees who graduated from the schools that have signed agreements with Safran. These employees visit their alma maters to share their experiences, establish contacts with future graduates, and describe their jobs and career opportunities at Safran.

According to Jean-Luc Bérard, Executive Vice President, Human Resources at Safran, "This partnership reflects Safran's ongoing commitment to the training and professional inclusion of young people. Since 2010, we have signed 17 partnership agreements with engineering schools. After signing an agreement with UPMC in 2013, we have now signed another one with Paris-Sud University, confirming our commitment to diversifying the workforce that will join us in the future. We hired more than 7,000 new employees in 2016, including nearly 2,000 in France, and one out of every five employees is involved in R&D, which means that this latest partnership really comes into its own for both Safran and Paris-Sud University."

Sylvie Retailleau, President of Paris-Sud University, added, "We provide training for top-flight specialists in energy, materials, IT, mechanics and electronics, and their scientific knowledge, skills and expertise meet the needs of a major international enterprise like Safran. This partnership will allow us to bolster our ties and also extend our scope of collaboration, by implementing joint actions. It will also multiply the opportunities for our students to get ready to start their careers, and to earn recognition for their multiple talents."

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