Training Engineers for Innovation

5 The Training of Innovators between Skill Acquisition and Construction of an Individual Socioprofessional Identity

5.1. Introduction

Training for innovation, given the immoderate use of these terms, requires upfront clarification, notably for the notion of innovation. This is what we have been able to do with regard to our PhD, which was devoted to this subject during theoretical research and empirical investigation (immersions, interviews, observations, collection and analysis of data from various sources) based on innovation training in the French higher education system. On completion of this study, we were able to establish that the different meanings of the term correspond to the different ways for innovation training and that of innovators. We thus propose in this chapter to present the results of our study for the case of French Engineering Schools.

An initial study of the scoping notes of the Commission des titres d’ingénieur (CTI)¹ shows that from 2006 to 2016 the content linked with the term “innovation” has evolved greatly, moving from research to company creation; from the creation of new activities via assuming more responsibility. Innovation training was initially assimilated to the development of creativity, and then more to entrepreneurial activity and the creation of economic values, becoming a mindset and included in uses beyond technology. What we describe here refers to entrepreneurship and descriptions of innovative entrepreneurs, notably in the English-speaking ...