Business Cafés, a new initiative on the Rouen campus, aims to facilitate meetings between students and businesses.

Organised through the motivation of the student union and in collaboration with the school’s business relations department, these meetings last a half a day and look to put NOEMA BS students in contact with a company invited to attend the event.

“In November 2017, we hosted Mondelez. Around one hundred students attended, and twenty-five of them were placed in internships for 2018,” said Baptiste Cobigo, vice-president of the student union, which was behind the initiative.

Informal meetings

“The goal is to make the meetings informal. Students can come in jeans and a t-shirt. It’s not set up as a job-interview style event,” the student said, who is enrolled in the Entrepreneurs & Associations programme (PEA).

After Mondelez in November, the next Business Café will welcome Kronenbourg, part of Carlsberg Group, on January 23, 2018.

Long-term planning for the meetings

Baptiste Cobigo does not count on stopping there. The student union vice-president hopes to attract large companies like Microsoft as well as start-ups like La Relève. The goal is to organise one visit per month.

“The idea is to create a genuine meeting and to ensure that this initiative continues on into the coming years,” Baptiste Cobigo added.