On August 29th, Olivia Cao (class of 2009) was invited to attend the Université des Chambres de Commerce et d’Industrie at the Palais des Congrès de Versailles. The seminar on the theme of “19-29 the challenges of a generation” aimed to answer the following questions: What are the dreams and realities of young people around the world? How do they approach work and entrepreneurship? What are they interested in? How can France and Europe overcome the challenges faced by this generation? What sort of practical solutions can the Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and companies in general, provide to support 19-29 year olds? The audience included CCI presidents and members, directors from CCI funded schools, CEOs and important figures. CCI funded schools at the round table: AUDENCIA, EGC, ESCP Europe, ESIGELEC, ESSEC Business School, HEC and ISIPCA.

Olivia Cao took part in a round table on the theme of work.
Excerpt from her biography on the seminar site: “Olivia Cao was born in 1986 in Paris suburbs and graduated from ESIGELEC in 2009 under the auspices of the Rouen Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She passed the school entrance exam after 2 years of preparatory PSI classes (Engineering Physics and Sciences) and took an engineering work study course alternating between time in company and in class. After a general core curriculum in the IT, telecommunications and electronics fields, she chose to major in Networks Architecture and Security.

The quality of her training at ESIGELEC combined with 3 years of first-hand experience as an apprentice at France Telecom/Orange really helped her settle into working life. The work study course enabled her to build technical knowledge and managerial skills. It provided an excellent approach to working life, an understanding of how companies work and greater independence.

Following her degree, which gave her practically 1.5 years of work experience in a work study course, she joined Thales Air Systems on a VIE (International Business Programme) as a Networks Engineer and spent 2 years in Copenhagen setting up an air control system for Denmark. Following the VIE, Thales employed her to work under the same job title in France.”

The seminar in pictures : http://www.cci.fr/web/2012-universite-des-cci/acces-a-l-emploi