The doctorate, a qualification with high added value
A doctorate enables doctoral students to acquire advanced knowledge in a specific discipline. It also confers the skills that are developed as part of a thesis: autonomy, rigour, the capacity for analysis and synthesis, the ability to manage complex situations. This dual specificity – expertise supplemented with transversal skills – ensures that this excellent training is increasingly appreciated by recruiters.
Balanced distribution between the public and private sectors
Investigations are carried out regularly to follow the progress of graduates from our doctoral school. They show that almost 70 % of our doctors are employed in a public or private company and 25 % are moving towards higher education and academic research.
In the private sector, executive status is in the overwhelming majority and there are large variations in average salaries – from 37,000 to 53,000 euros gross per annum.
The importance of the professional network
The professional network, which is developed during the thesis, is the main route to finding employment. Regarding the added value of the doctorate for professional integration, graduates consider that scientific and technical skills are of primary importance (over 90 %), followed by the ability to manage complex issues (over 50 %), cognitive skills (40 %) and the collaborative dimension (20 %). This wide range of skills is judged by three quarters of Arts et Métiers doctor graduates as critical for the pursuit of their careers.
CIFRE, a passport for employment agreements
One of the main methods of financing theses is the CIFRE agreement (industrial training through research agreement), which allows companies to hire a student for three years as part of a collaboration project with a public sector laboratory. At Arts et Métiers, almost one thesis in four is involved. According to a study conducted in 2016 by the Ministry for Higher Education and Research and ANRT, two thirds of doctoral graduates adopting this formula pursue careers in a company, compared to one third of all doctoral graduates. The experience conferred by this mode of doctoral training, which is geared towards industrial concerns, ensures greater employability in the private sector. The study also reveals that three quarters of CIFRE doctoral graduates are recruited for R&D projects, most of which are related to the thesis.
