By Line Pélissier, SVP Career Paths and Recognition at Orange.
Transforming in a world in transition
While the health crisis and lockdown period in particular may have impacted how we had to reorganise our business, these factors never called into question Orange’s policy in favour of youth employment, inclusion and skills development. The components linked to the HR ambition in our Engage 2025 strategic plan – tackling the skills challenge and becoming one of the most attractive employers – therefore remain priorities.
The successful transformation of our network operator business and the development of new growth areas (cybersecurity, financial services such as Orange Bank, business services, etc.) cannot be achieved without the acquisition of new skills, in particular in the fields of technology, big data or artificial intelligence. To attract talent, especially young graduates, we’re boosting our communication and information campaigns on a variety of our activities, but also on the quality of our onboarding and the employee experience that we offer.
Working at Orange means evolving in an organisation that’s open to multiple possibilities: varied career paths, challenges, international exposure, attention to work-life balance and gender equality. Orange’s prominence and reputation for excellence represent tremendous assets that we can rely on to develop our attractiveness as an employer.
Work-study training, a dynamic employment model for the future
The lockdown has had minimal impact on the recruitment of work-study students in 2020. This year, we’re welcoming more than 5,000 work-study placements and interns across our business.
The work-study programme is a great form of blended learning that we promote strongly: it represents more than 5% of our workforce in France. It also meets our commitment to help young people into employment and allows the Group to nurture future recruitments on permanent contracts.
What can a student expect to experience at Orange?
Expert support – their tutor (only one student per tutor) allocates 10% of their working time to supervision – an internal social network for new starters, help writing CVs and job hunting and more. This quality of support is recognised by work-study students and interns alike, resulting in our ranking in the annual Happy Trainees report, which lists the best companies for internships and work-study programmes. It’s great evidence of our commitment to young people, since Orange tops the list in 2020!
First year for the Orange Apprentice Training Centre
To meet our training needs in terms of future skills and jobs and to encourage continuous learning and development, Orange is inaugurating its Apprentice Training Centre (CFA) in 2020. We’ve just welcomed our first class.
We offer four Degree courses in key areas such as cloud, cybersecurity, data and customer service. These training courses are open to young people just starting out, but also to people looking to retrain and to Group employees.
Why this initiative?
While training remains a priority, the CFA also represents a lever for attracting different profiles and promoting diversity within these professions and therefore at Orange. This training centre also increases equal opportunity, a subject that is dear to us. This is evidenced by the many partnerships forged with schools (hosting third year students in ZEPs (priority education zones) for internships), social start-ups (Simplon digital school for employment) and associations (Capital Filles promoting women in business). In addition, we’re also boosting opportunities for employees with disabilities in terms of recruitment, job retention, accessibility to workplaces and professional development. The health crisis has led us to develop a range of initiatives so they can continue to work in the most favourable conditions possible.