Émilie Paris, president of the CNJE, looks back on her role during her one-year mandate. She also talks about her journey, but also how she managed to join the office of the National Confederation of Junior Enterprises.
Since the creation of the first Junior Enterprise in France, in 1967, at ESSEC, more and more higher education students are creating or getting involved in the JEs of their schools or universities. These are Junior Entrepreneurs who, wishing to professionalize before the end of their studies, manage their Junior Enterprises and carry out projects for professionals. Since 1969, the JE movement has promoted and guaranteed its expertise with the help of the National Confederation of Junior Enterprises. We met Emilie, president of the CNJE.
Become president of the CNJE
Can you describe your path to becoming president of the CNJE?
My name is Emilie Paris, I am a student at Burgundy School of Business (BSB), after two years of literary preparatory class. I have always felt this need to undertake, to discover new fields as well as to prepare for my professional integration. For these reasons, I joined my school’s Junior Enterprise as business development manager, then president. Having fallen in love with the concept of Junior Enterprise, I decided to take a sabbatical year to join the presidency of the CNJE.
Within the CNJE, the members of the Board of Directors and Project Managers as well as the Office are former JE students. Getting involved in the CNJE necessarily requires having sat on the board of a JE?
No, not necessarily. To join the CNJE, you must have worked within a JE. However, the JE of origin does not matter, whether it is that of a university, a business school, an engineering school or a specialized school. Former position within the JE doesn’t matter either. You can join the CNJE by having been responsible for monitoring studies, responsible for communications or president of its structure, as long as you wish to invest in the movement.
How do I access the CNJE office?
By choice already. It’s a big responsibility, so you have to be keen to give time to this Movement. Recruitment for the presidency of the CNJE takes place at the same time as recruitment for other positions but requires more work due to the responsibilities that this position entails. There are many strategic issues to study. This provides a global vision of the CNJE, which I found particularly interesting.
CNJE: Raising the colors of a national movement
Today, the CNJE brings together 200 JEs spread across France. How do we manage to unify a student movement of this magnitude?
For our mandate, the unification of the movement was a crucial issue, after two years of health crisis. We were aware of the difficulty of unifying the Movement, because all of our events had taken place online. We have decided to review our formats and the attractiveness of our events to provide strong added value. I will give the example of the National Summer Congress last May, which brought together 1,100 students in a Center Parcs in Normandy. During these three days, the training dealt with diversity, so that students gained competence on this subject. We had the opportunity to be supported on these issues by our partners: BNP ParibasAlten, EY, ENGIE and Saint-Gobain.
The CNJE therefore contributes to the cohesion of the Movement by organizing the national congresses which take place each year. You mentioned the summer one, the second takes place in winter. What does your representational role consist of during these events?
The role of president of the CNJE is both internal and external. Congresses are an opportunity to mix the two. At conferences, I will constantly be in contact with Junior Enterprises in order to better understand their issues. These moments are for me an opportunity to promote everything that the CNJE can offer.
At the same time, I will be able to invite external actors to communicate during these national conferences. For example, at the winter congress, we had a speech from the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Frédérique Vidal, who introduced the connection between our Movement internally and external stakeholders.
CNJE: Best support for Junior Enterprises
Aside from these conferences, how do you organize your daily life? Being president of the CNJE which operates at the national level, does that allow you to be in contact with the JEs at the local level?
In the exercise of the position of president, we are perpetually in contact with the JEs. I am not on an internship or in study, alongside my presidency, which means that I am involved full-time in the CNJE. This allows me to carry out projects with the JEs, as with the JE CSR committee whose development I support. This committee has only been in existence for two years and I am helping to construct its action plan.
My intervention with JEs also helps to lead them in their flagship projects. For example, Marketing Méditerranée and Junior CentralSupélec launched a study on gender-based and sexual violence within higher education. As president of the CNJE, I supported them and gave them access to all the resources they could need.
Each year, the CNJE JEs respond to more than 3,500 individual or business issues. What is the place of the CNJE in ensuring the expertise of the missions carried out by the JE?
The CNJE does not intervene in the studies of Junior Enterprises which are independent. On the other hand, it organizes, once or twice a year, audits during which the Juniors of France receive consultant auditors mandated by the CNJE. These auditors are Junior Entrepreneurs who have passed an exam to certify their ability to audit structures. We will therefore be able to evaluate different JE themes, such as the completion and monitoring of studies, management strategies, treasury, human resources management, etc. At the end of this audit, the JEs receive a sanction. In the majority of cases, JEs receive the “satisfactory” sanction, which is the best possible sanction.
Junior Enterprises, the voice of the future working population
As part of the presidential campaign, the CNJE team wrote an open letter on the employability of young people. What message do Junior Entrepreneurs send about the integration of young people into the job market?
Youth must be a driving force in their professional integration. We cannot afford to wait for an opportunity to arise; young people must seek it out with solutions such as internships and work-study programs. This is what we sought to show to politicians with the example of Junior Entrepreneurs who take responsibility from the start of their studies.
The Junior Entrepreneur comes to look for his study, to look for his client and he does not remain passive in his school curriculum. He then brings added value to his student experience, which is strongly considered during job interviews. For example, our 2021 barometer on professional integration shows that 91% of Junior Entrepreneurs say that their JE experience was valued.
More and more JEs are trying to adopt a CSR approach in their missions, what does this consist of?
I don’t think that these I am “trying to adopt” a CSR approach, it is in reality a need of young people to take up these subjects. This youth no longer accepts old operating models and is freeing themselves from them. Always more proactive, these JEs will seek change. This is why the CNJE has set up an internal body, the CSR Committee, in order to supervise the JEs in these approaches. The Committee wishes to be an incubator for CSR practices of French JEs. The JE movement is so rich and innovative that it would be a shame if good practice remained confined to one or two Junior Enterprises in France. Ultimately, it is about making CSR the source of growth for JE
The CNJE and the JE of France, drivers of tomorrow’s transformations
Your successor will soon be announced, what assessment could you make of your presidency and what are your wishes for the JE of France for the next 5 years?
In 2020, the CNJE defined a 4-year strategy and my end of mandate marks the halfway point of the strategy. My predecessor, Alexandre Lang, had to face the health crisis and reorganize the Movement online. Conversely, I had to shift the codes of the Movement around face-to-face to physically bring together all of the JEs. This bet was carried out during congresses and meetings with Junior-Enterprises.
My successor, who will be appointed next week, will have the great challenge of continuing to rebuild the Movement so that it is more ambitious and leads ever more projects with a positive impact. I wish the CNJE to succeed in enriching the JE experience to best support the major transitions in society. In the future, we must be able to say that JEs meet tomorrow’s needs for societal change.
