The Success of Apprenticeships

8The Birth of Apprenticeships: A Marker of the Pioneering Spirit of ESSEC

8.1. Introduction

Recounting stories about the birth of apprenticeships at ESSEC Business School gives the event a mythical stature by its insistence on the truth, and for our contemporaries today, this is meaningful. Such recognition mirrors an institution’s ability to tell its story, produce its benchmark values and persevere in their evocation. In this story, we will recall the actions of the people and organizations who worked together at one time so that something could take shape and exist today.

Apprenticeships appeared quite naturally at ESSEC in 1993, following a favorable alignment of the stars¹ and the commitment of three men and two women² who believed in this founding project and fought against adverse winds and tides. God knows if prejudices against this newborn were (and still are, alas!) strong and numerous, both inside and outside the institution. So we did not perish at sea and yet, as Victor Hugo wrote in his poem Oceano Nox: “Oh, how many sailors, how many captains who left joyfully for distant races, in this bleak horizon vanished?” (author’s translation).

I think about all these business and engineering school directors contacting me 20 years ago to find out a little more about the usefulness and relevance of apprenticeships, then leaving for home – faces pallid, panicked by what they thought they had to do to radically reform their pedagogy. Believing it would be impossible to ...