France produces many graduates in the humanities and social sciences (literature, history, psychology, etc.). However, despite their level of qualifications, their access to the world of employment is difficult. Letters and Human Sciences students generally take the civil service exams, but there is a limited number of places. Often, at the end of their literature and human sciences course, they return to more specific studies which will allow them to move towards a profession more in line with the real economy and their career.
France, a producer of scholars
However, these graduates have a certain “job” which could be a valuable resource for French companies looking for original ways to bounce back.
Four characteristics seem to distinguish these workers from other young graduates. First of all, their mastery of the French language, not only from an orthographic point of view but from an intellectual point of view, makes them better communicators in < /span>internally and externally. They are often able to explain their projects and convince others to support them.
The fact that many of them have been trained in fields focused on teaching or research makes them more capable of formulating their speech according to their audience while being attentive to their needs.
In addition, the proportion of novel readers is greater among Human Sciences students. You may find this mention strange. However, a recent American study shows that readers of novels have a greater capacity for empathy and open-mindedness and therefore tolerance.
Managers who listen to their teams
Within a company, a member of staff who knows how to listen and understand his colleagues is an asset which, without definitively ruling out the passage through the industrial tribunal, can make this passage less frequent. And in general, it allows teams to function better daily. Graduates in humanities and social sciences have a greater capacity to decenter themselves than others.
Mastery of foreign languages
Next, these students have a mastery of foreign languages that is both more varied (they know more languages) and finer (they know them better) than the others. Without returning to the usual battle of clichés about the low level of French people in languages, it should be emphasized that even among those who boast, on their CV, of a knowledge of English, there is an undeniable difference between those who learned English from The Economist and those who learned it by reading novels. The latter have a richer vocabulary and more regular practice of English.
Mastery of the language, a major asset
Finally, at a time when it seems that competition is exerting particular pressure on companies, and when many companies seem to see their salvation in additional work, in an increase in their capacity to execute, we can wonder if France’s greatest competitive advantage is not in the existence of a population with a very high cultural level, which allows many of its workers to boast a real capacity to design and innovate daily.
Common knowledge
General culture is also what allows us to develop vision, distance from routine, and see innovations. We must not work more, we must work better, with more intelligence.
Sense of communication, sense of humanity, mastery of languages, and capacity for innovation. These are four strategic assets that students’ inhumanities often possess. Over the past fifteen years, certain initiatives have taken stock of these qualities.
The major business schools have begun to accept large numbers of students from literary preparatory classes, and certain programs allow human sciences master’s students to join large groups. For example, Operation Phénix is led by universities in the Paris region but is open to all students graduating from a French university.
We need to recruit historians
These programs are considered successes by the schools and groups involved. That being said, they retain this fault of being a very advanced form of “businesswashing”: from these students, we only retain one quality: the ability to work and not its secondary qualities, which are nevertheless fundamental for a company: speaking, listening, invent.
In this sense, these devices already belong to another time. The new step must be, for companies, to move away from this habit of thinking, from this illusion, that the main recruitment criterion must be appropriate, professional and technical training.
Certainly, for many functions, the specificity of diplomas reflects essential skills for exercising a profession. But, very often, the technicality or specificity of a worker’s tasks is less great. Companies need generalists who are inventive and responsive.
What if we innovated in the recruitment of students in Letters and Human Sciences?
There is never a better time to innovate than periods of crisis when we begin to vaguely feel that all the hackneyed recipes are at an end and that we must do things differently. A huge resource of our country is the general level of general culture!
