Programme co-constructed with Renault wins Cegos Digital Learning Excellence Award

​Eager to become a benchmark employer for women in the industry, the Renault Group turned to SKEMA to co-construct a programme called "W-Journey", targeting female employees working in middle management roles and aimed at leading them towards roles with greater responsibility, across all of the group's sectors.

The programme, initiated in 2021, won a Cegos Digital Learning Excellence Award in 2022. "The purpose of this programme is promotion and we take an educational approach that must encourage self-confidence, leadership and speaking up. We wish to prepare the young generation. We're looking to fill the positions we'll need in the future," explains Patrick Benammar, vice-president of learning & development at the Renault Group.

Using SKEMA's expertise

To design this programme, SKEMA's Executive Education department and faculty worked with the Renault Group to come up with a distance learning course that relied in particular on the school's SKOOL platform and the expertise of its professors: Stéphanie Chasserio (researcher and professor of management at SKEMA and co-manager of the Women in Business Chair created at SKEMA) and Michel Ferrary (professor-researcher and founder of the SKEMA Observatory on the Feminisation of Companies).

"Co-constructing bespoke Executive Education programmes with our clients is part of SKEMA's DNA. This programme draws on the school's key areas of expertise: we have Stéphanie Chasserio, professor-researcher, who co-directs the Women in Business Chair, providing pedagogical support and the action levers required to change the rules of the game, and then Michel Ferrary, integrating the latest research in this area," says Pascale Viala, director of Corporate Office, SKEMA Business School.

She adds: "In designing this bespoke course, SKEMA decided to adopt a reflective approach where the participants are invited to take some time to think about themselves and consider their strengths and their areas for improvement. Through this approach, they had the possibility to express their ambition, write about it, and put it into words. They were also able to develop their assertiveness and communication skills."

SKEMA professors' expertise

To support the participants throughout the course, Professor Stéphanie Chasserio contributed to the W-Journey several times. "The diversity of the educational models we utilise in this programme enables us to train the participants to modify their approaches and behaviours through several situations that are useful in their professional lives. This gives them the opportunity to make themselves more visible, take their place, build professional networks and manage their careers more strategically," she explains.

A masterclass with Michel Ferrary

In support of these modules, Professor Michel Ferrary ran a masterclass to demonstrate the connection between the feminisation of companies and their performance. "During my masterclass, by highlighting the conclusions of the studies I've been conducting for 15 years, I evaluated the current gender diversity situation in large French companies in terms of the board, the executive committee, executives and other staff, to then show the connection between gender balance and performance. I also presented a more specific overview of diversity in companies in the automotive sector and related industrial sectors. 

Each time, I cross-reference the gender balance figures with financial (stock market values, profitability) and non-financial (corporate social responsibility) performance data to demonstrate the business advantages of diversity. The aim here was to provide the participants with an additional element, beyond the social justice argument, to consider in economic terms to help promote diversity within their company."