Launch of a course dedicated to intrapreneurship and digital transformation

Interview with the managers of the training program: Anne Lalou, director of Web School Factory and Bruno Rostand, director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Université PSL.

PSL: The CFEE is a new training offered by Université PSL and the Web School Factory. It's an alliance quite new. Can you tell in a few words the origin of the project?

Bruno Rostand: It is indeed a partnership of a new type, but at PSL we are used to creating bridges between disciplines and players…We were contacted by the Web School Factory to develop a joint response to the PIA Disrupt Campus call for proposals and saw this as an opportunity to further diversify our approaches and discover new perspectives, particularly in the areas of innovation and digital transformation, which are priorities for us.
Anne Lalou: By co-creating this curriculum, we wanted, and this is very new, to get involved in setting up companies and open them to new innovative ecosystems. To meet this challenge, the Campus of Formation Etudiants Entreprises is based on three pillars. While taking into account the new skills needed in today's digital world, we wanted to not only implement collaborations between students and employees, but also, create a new project-based training program.

PSL: Intrapreneurship is at the heart of the training offered by the CFEE. Why have you decided to focus on intrapreneurship rather than on entrepreneurship? In your opinion, are these two distinct or complementary areas?

 CFEE will develop the creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation capabilities of our students

Anne Lalou: In companies, innovation is being done more and more by "intrapreneurial" approaches. In practice, this means that an SME or a large group gives some of its employees the time and support necessary for the development of a project that could, potentially, turn into a profitable business. Intrapreneurship offers companies the opportunity to think outside the box and open up to the vitality of the entrepreneurial ecosystem... Digital transformation and innovation will increasingly go through this type of approach and we wanted to support the framework of CFEE by providing students and employees with the necessary tools.

Bruno Rostand: Similar to our entrepreneurship trainings (ITI, PSL-Pépite), CFEE will develop the creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation capacities of our students, but intrapreneurship starts with a concrete challenge to answer the needs of a partner company, and this brings a new dimension: an immersion in the life of the company and an experience of the digital transition which happens there. In this regard CFEE completes and enriches our training offer and, moreover, some of the activities of CFEE will take place at the PSL-Lab, coworking space of the PSL-Pépite entrepreneurship group.

PSL: Digital transformation is on everyone's lips ... It is so trendy, one could imagine, that it is a topic in process of being regulated by the companies, or might be, after adequate training. In your opinion, what will be the competitive edge of CFEE students trained in intrapreneurship for companies?

Anne Lalou: There will be many of them. The impact of the CFEE student training will be, in my opinion, quite immediate. The Web School Factory already exists. Student projects give a fresh look at the teams of partner companies. It is a fruitful interaction that moves lines and opens additional interesting perspectives. The students of the CFEE will be able to profit from it. This new curriculum is also, in our opinion, an investment of the future. It will complement the training of SHS students or PSL engineering students by providing them with expertise and experience in digital transformation.

PSL: The students of the CFEE will be students from all backgrounds and employees of partner companies (including the financial group ODDO BHF). The CFEE's classrooms are an unprecedented experience; what do you expect from this intergenerational collaboration?

Besides the mixing of social origins, internationalization or parity, intergenerational is essential. CFEE will be an example.

Bruno Rostand: Students have a lot to learn from employees about the reality of a market and business experiences. In return, they bring a fresh look to which the rigor and the level of requirement of their training match. Employees will leave their comfort zone, put aside their certainties, to bring out innovative and transformative concepts for their company.

Anne Lalou: We bet that this intergenerational collaboration will be stimulating, constructive and, above all, that it will serve as a founding experience for their lifelong training: to learn in initial training, in continuing education, online or even in groups… these formats will disappear and it is a great opportunity for the players to experience it at this stage. We talk a lot about diversity in today's world. Besides the mixing of social origins, internationalization or parity, intergenerational diversity is essential. CFEE will be an example.

PSL: Each partner company will propose to the students of the CFEE some case studies to solve. Can this link between the student and the company lead to recruitments?

Start-ups, I hope, will emerge from this program. And after all, rather than finding a job, why not create it?

Anne Lalou: More than recruitments, I want the CFEE curriculum to lead learners to a concrete ambition, offering them a taste for innovation and creativity. Start-ups, I hope, will emerge from this program. And after all, rather than finding a job, why not create it? The key is to develop the capacity for transformation and innovation, inside and outside organizations. CFEE will be the proof that our companies today are ready to innovate differently, organizations must accept confrontation and understand that student collaboration can result in great new concepts. That's what I want for our students!

PSL: What will your message be at the first promotion of the CFEE next September?

Anne Lalou: Dear learners, a unique opportunity awaits you to start a new chapter of your training. Seize this opportunity, see yourself as pioneers forging your individual paths and future! Create innovation today and tomorrow. Do not limit yourself, be ambitious, be resolutely intrapreneurial, because the transformation of our economic landscape also happens with you.

Bruno Rostand: Dear students, be a part of the digital revolution alongside our partner companies; rise to the challenge, and collaborate with a diverse multicultural and intergenerational team! Dear employees of our business partners, come share your experiences and ambitions with our students in order to co-create the solutions of tomorrow!