Civic Engagement

In 2017, Centrale Nantes introduced a civic engagement into the curriculum for all students on the engineering programme (starting in the first year and to be completed by March in the second year). This civic engagement builds on the fundamental values that the school strives to share with its students, staff and partners - openness, commitment, humanity.

A civic engagement is undertaken in the form voluntary work or community service, i.e. it is unpaid, which benefits a community outside the school.

Students can choose to serve communities such as associations, local authorities (town halls, local or regional authorities), or public institutions (museums, middle schools, high schools etc) in one of the following areas:

• culture and leisure,
• environment,
• health,
• solidarity,
• education for all,
• emergency crisis intervention
• remembrance and citizenship,
• sport,
• international development and humanitarian action.

• Compulsory activity for all students on the engineering programme, in addition to the first year internship
• 100 hours broken down as follows:
  • 10 hours of awareness-raising modules to be taken at school, on first-aid, secularism and prevention of harassment and gender-based and sexual violence
  • 90 hours of unpaid voluntary work with an outside organization

The first students to sign up for their civic engagement are involved in activities ranging from tutoring school children in foster care, to playing music in residential homes, to humanitarian action further afield, in countries such as Vietnam and Peru.

Centrale Nantes has an agreement with the jeveuxaider platform whereby the school's students can access civic engagement or volunteering opportunities by theme or location, and also discover projects in other fields to expand their horizons.