A look back at the "Mentorat 2024" initiative organized by the ENSAE Alumni association in partnership with the School

Launched on Thursday January 11, the 2024 edition of the ENSAE Alumni Mentoring Program for 1st and 2nd year direct students mobilized sixty mentor-mentee pairs over one semester. It ended with a satisfaction survey launched in June, to ensure that the program is part of a continuous improvement process for both alumni and students.

The aim of the program, which complements the actions carried out by L'Ecole, is to encourage the sharing of professional experience, while facilitating links between alumni and current ENSAE students. The mentors, who come from a variety of business sectors, offer personalized support to students, helping them to refine their orientation, refine their professional projects, develop their network, and better appreciate the complexity of the professional world.

Key figures for 2024:

• 60 pairs trained, 20 more than in 2023.
• 57 pairs completed the program, for a completion rate of 95%.
• 64 students expressed interest, with a breakdown of 46 students in 1st year and 18 students in direct 2nd year.
• Mentors are alumni from the 1981 to 2022 graduating classes.

Results and lessons learned from the satisfaction survey:

• A response rate of 44%, particularly among mentors (over 50%) and mentees (one third).
• For both mentors and mentees, overall satisfaction exceeded 3/5 on the 3 dimensions measured: quality of relationships, personal benefits, program organization.
• The mentors appreciated the opportunity to pass on their knowledge and accompany the students on their journey, underlining the importance of this project for developing the skills of the younger generation.
• For the student mentees, mentoring was seen as a valuable opportunity to refine their professional project and understand market expectations, but also to address the relational and emotional aspects.

Suggested areas for improvement:

• Improve communication about the program by both ENSAE Alumni and the School.
• Optimize the preparation of mentees for more fruitful mentoring relationships, through enhanced coordination between the mentoring team and the school.
• For its part, ENSAE Alumni would point out that a mentor does not necessarily need to be in the sector or profession targeted by the mentee: he or she provides support beyond knowledge of a profession/sector.
• It has been suggested that the program should be extended to all 2nd year students, and that the mentoring sessions should be longer.

The ENSAE Alumni Mentoring team will be working hard to incorporate these suggestions into the 2024-2025 program, which will be developed in partnership with the School!

We'll be back soon with our 2025 program!