Graduates from French major schools: professional integration maintains at high level

Students

The professional integration of graduates from major French schools is doing good! An annual study from CGE (Conférence des grandes écoles) reveals that with a net employment rate at 85.8%, the professional insertion of graduates from the 2023 class maintains at a high level. The recruitment of graduates is still as fast after graduation: about 85% have been recruited less than two months after the end of their studies, and about 67% had found a job even before passing their degree. Employment conditions are still excellent: 84.2% of graduates concluded a permanent contract and 86.4% have an executive status.

For more than 30 years, the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles (CGE, an association of higher education institutions) have been releasing studies on the professional integration of its graduates. For the latest, made on the December 2023 - march 2024 period, “major schools participated on a massive scale”: 199 out of 203 solicited for the study (i.e. 98%) asked their graduates to participate, out of 103,568 available surveys. According to the CGE, this strong participation “provides more reliable results, with each school having its own characteristics”. Indeed, the 200 schools include a large majority of schools of engineering and management schools, but also art schools, institutes of political studies or schools of journalism.

Overall, the employability rate maintains at its level

The picture the CGE provides this year is thus highly representative of the employability of young graduates from these institutions. The biggest info of this study is: despite a slight decrease in a less favourable context for executives’ employment, the employability rate maintains at its level. In 2024, the number of young graduates who found a job settled at 85.8%, vs 90.5% in 2023, which was the “post-Covid record year”.

In detail, for schools of engineering, this net employment rate is 89.6%. And for business schools, it is 81.2% and for institutions in other specialities, it reaches 81.5%. In average, regardless of the institutions where they graduated, 84.6% of students concluded a work contract less than 2 months after graduating, and 94.9% in the 4 months following their graduation. And the CGE stresses that 66.9% “had even found a job before graduating”.

Wages on the rise, and graduates satisfied with their job

On the subject of type of employment, 84.2% of graduates (mostly engineers and managers) concluded a permanent work contract (85.5% last year) and 86.4% an executive contract (85.44% in 2023). On the wage side, engineers boast an annual gross salary (excl. Bonus) of 38,520 euros, and managers reach 40,241 euros. In average, across all categories of institution, in 2024, graduates from “grandes écoles” earn 39,010 euros, a 2.2% increase compared to last year, which absorbs prices increase (+1.3%) A cloud in the sky, though: men’s wages are still above women’s (+5.2%). And this gap applies across all industries, the CGE notes.

In term of employment structures, distribution is fairly balanced: 32.3% of graduates have a job in small and medium companies (SME), 29.9% in average-size companies (250 to 5,000 companies) and 31.6% work in large companies (5k+ employees). Only 6.2% chose very small companies (under 10 employees).

Overall, 84.8% of graduates declare being “very satisfied” or “satisfied” of their job, and 91% “believe they have a job matching their qualification level”.

Still attractive mobility

Mobility is still appealing for young graduates of “grandes écoles”. A young graduate out of 9 works abroad, says the CGE. 9% of engineers, 14.8% of managers and 14% of students in other specialities chose to work in another country as their first job. In such mobilities, Europe stays a priority, with 43.1% studying in the European Union. More precisely, 15.4% of French graduates work in Switzerland, 9.4% in Germany, 9.2% in Luxemburg, 6.7% in Belgium, 4.7% in Italy and 3.8% in Spain. Outside the European Union are: the United Kingdom (8.3% of graduates), Canada (7.8%), the United States (4.7%) and China (4.1%).

For graduates working in France, distribution of jobs show that the Île-de-France region attracts 53.6% of graduates, and regions overall 46.7%. Except maybe for engineers, who are only 38.7% to work in the Paris region.

Jobs in connection with environmental transition

In the sections called “graduates that are better prepared to transitions”, the CGE survey dedicates a section in this new release to Corporate Social Responsibility, which affects this year 41.7% of jobs (vs 38.6% in 2023).

More precisely, 38.7% of engineers, 45.3% of managers and 50.9% with a job in another speciality declare they have a job in CSR, including 88.7% in relation with environment. About 70% of graduates recruited in jobs in relation with the environment believe they acquired in their training course “skills for environmental transformation” that are useful to work in such jobs.