In 2020, KEDGE was working on its KEDGE 2025 strategic plan. On the agenda of its promises: to be an original, sustainable, and inclusive school; to be anchored in the territories and open to the world; and to have skills that are always up to date.
More than ever, these promises are at the heart of society… and of KEDGE’s commitments.
The first part of a career corresponds to the choices- more or less conscious, and whenever there were possible- made at the time of the so-called initial training. These are generally the result of a combination of a family or personal model, a societal orientation (fashion effect), an influence of the labour market (maximising chances for one's first job).
A second part of a career, as we have noted, usually corresponds to a more conscious and objective professional trajectory. This trajectory is driven by a better knowledge of oneself, a need to give meaning to one's life, a freedom of choice that one has not always had in the past, realizing that one lacks certain skills in order to evolve, and an obsolescence of one's knowledge.
KEDGE's Executive Education programmes typically respond to these challenges. They are aimed at those who already have diplomas, but also at those who have not had the opportunity to obtain them, through specific French mechanisms (VAE, etc.);
The questions of the second or third part of one's career are not only individual but also collective, insofar as organisations, faced with new challenges, are seeking to change their structures, their business models, and therefore their managers and employees’ profiles.
KEDGE Executive Education department, which trains more than 5,000 professionals per year, has built an extended offer around its values to respond to the questions of professionals on their "next career steps", by providing a choice of degrees, certifications, "off-the-shelf" or "tailor-made" training courses, co-constructed with companies.
Building your 2nd or 3rd career is often done through a degree course, which at KEDGE can be structured around:
- a generalist programme for experienced executives (+ 5 years of managerial experience), the Global Executive MBA (delivered in English), which provides an international outlook, personal and network development, an immersive experience as well as refresher seminars that integrate the latest technological, societal and environmental trends to give meaning, dynamism, or a different direction to one's career.
- but also, specialisation areas such as the Executive Master in Supply Chain Management (ISLI), International Purchasing (MAI), Quality, Safety and Environment Systems (ISMQ), Management of Health Structures and Activities (MSAIS), etc.
The ‘second part of the career’ questions:
- companies, about the place they wish to give to experienced employees and the intergenerational dynamic,
- civil society, on the general perception and the support it intends to put in place to accept and support longer careers,
- and of course, the individuals concerned and their own motivation. Managing the second half of one's career involves the need to remain effective, to accept to update one's skills, or even to acquire new ones, and to remain flexible and adaptable.
These are essential challenges to be taken up, individually and collectively, at a time when digitalization (AI, Metaverse, the Internet of Things), geostrategic upheavals and environmental changes are having a growing impact. Companies need behavioural skills such as curiosity, the ability to get different profiles and cultures to work together, the ability to learn, understand and make the link between different worlds, and deal with a complex world.
KEDGE Executive Education and its programmes are therefore fully in line with this lifelong learning economy.
