Mécénat Servier celebrates 6 years of its partnership with Un Stage Et Après
Skills-based sponsorship, welcoming trainees, financial support… Since 2017, Mécénat Servier has supported the Un Stage Et Après association in its actions to help young people discover the world of work. A long-term partnership serving equal opportunities!
Committed to equal opportunities
When he founded Un Stage Et Après in 2010, Bastien Le Coz, an entrepreneur committed to education and guidance issues, aimed to introduce the world of business to priority education students to facilitate their occupational integration. After all, from a priority education zone in Nanterre to the business district of La Défense, there is only one step: that of equal opportunities!
It is in this context that the partnership with Mécénat Servier was signed in 2017, one of the first established by the association, bringing together a common vision for the benefit of high school students from areas that are too often underprivileged.
A partnership around 3 pillars
On the one hand, funding allows the association to exist and to organize orientation and discovery workshops in the professional world for high school students who have dropped out of school. Funding also contributes to creating educational tools (board games, podcasts, educational notebooks, etc.) to help young people develop their relational skills: listening, expressing themselves, critical thinking, etc.
On the other hand, skills corporate sponsorship offers employees of Servier the opportunity to meet young people and to inform them about their profession and the career paths they offer or to participate in workshops in high schools.
Finally, Servier welcomes 16 students per year for observation courses in order to discover the business world in situ.
Anis Allouch, Head of Partnerships, Un Stage Et Après, says:
“The commitment of the women and men of the Servier group to our association offers more than a hundred students each year the chance to meet high-level professionals during workshops on orientation and discovery of the professional world, and during skills-based sponsorship missions or qualitative observation courses. Each encounter, each discovery, each look of inspiration lighting up a student’s gaze is a strong moment. The financial support given by Mécénat Servier makes it possible to finance and sustain our global support actions, which affect around 1,500 students per year. In total, in six years, nearly 10,000 young people have benefited directly or indirectly from this partnership. Thanks to Mécénat Servier, we have given them the keys to successfully enter working life.”
Karine Thebault, who herself came from a priority neighborhood and now works in Research & Development within the Servier group, wanted to share her experience. Thanks to skills-based sponsorship, she was able to devote two half-days to meeting high school students. She says:
“I was motivated by showing them that going to high school in a disadvantaged neighborhood does not prevent you from succeeding in your professional life. During the workshops I participated in, I was able to present my journey to them and answer their questions. I felt real interest from them. But the most important advice I wanted to give them was to work on their human qualities: open-mindedness, listening to others… I came away from these meetings with the satisfaction of having given some of my time toward having contributed, hopefully, to changing the way certain young people see the business world.”
Karine Thebault, Servier employee
The observation courses organized by the Un Stage Et Après association are also a special meeting time. Olivier Ruton, head of Digital Training at Servier, is well aware of this and strives to demystify the business world when he presents his activities to high school students who come to discover the Group.
“I try to make these sessions as interactive as possible by showing the students how to use the generative artificial intelligence tools I’m working on. I also draw parallels between the company and their daily lives. For example: what are the similarities and differences between training within the Servier group and studying at high school? I tell myself that this can help them to project themselves into the world of work, or even to discover a vocation! Having myself been to high school in a so-called “priority” suburb, I would like to show them that you can do an interesting job if you are motivated and you acquire the means. It is a pleasure to renew these meetings every year.”
Olivier Ruton, Servier employee
Over the years, a relationship of trust has been established: the association freely builds educational courses adapted to students and receives support from Mécénat Servier as close as possible to its needs and current affairs. A cycle of workshops on Eco-orientation will thus start in 2024. The principle? To introduce priority education students to companies committed to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Mécénat Servier volunteered to support this solidarity project in all respects.
