The company at the heart
of our pedagogy
Historically linked to the professional world, L'École de design Nantes Atlantique has developed an educational approach with a high degree of interaction with the business world in order to guarantee that the designers it graduates will be able to enter the workforce.
It promotes a project-based pedagogy and offers a wide range of opportunities for companies to recruit individuals who are particularly sensitive to technological, societal and environmental changes: internships, apprenticeships, prospective studies, workshops, projects in partnership with companies on real-life issues, talks and classes with professional designers.
More than just "creatives", our responsibility is to train "professionals of creation and innovation" in touch with real life. L'École de design Nantes Atlantique trains designers capable of anticipating the world of tomorrow, who will be ready to enter the workforce immediately after their studies.
Consequently, the success of L'École de design Nantes Atlantique is measured above all by the rate of employment found by its young graduates, a rate of between 80 and 90% six months after obtaining their 5-year design degree.
Projects in partnership with companies
The pedagogy of L'École de design Nantes Atlantique aims to optimize the quality of the relationship with companies by including numerous professional projects in partnership at the heart of the curriculum.
These projects allow students to work on real problems and to develop tools and solutions for the partner structure. Supervised by the teaching staff, the students use the tools and methodologies of prospective design to anticipate the uses and markets of tomorrow.
The department dedicated to partnerships ensures that the design briefs proposed by the companies (real case studies) are adapted to the teaching content (case studies adapted to the changing process of acquiring knowledge and know-how), in consultation with the teaching team.
Internships
L'École de design Nantes Atlantique incorporates internship periods into the 5-year Design degree and DN MADE (Bachelors degree) programs.
Students preparing for the 5-year Design degree can do an internship in the 3rd year of the Bachelors program and during the two years of the Masters program.
Students preparing the DN MADE Bachelors degree can do an internship in the 1st or 2nd year.
The purpose of these internships is to contribute to ongoing projects within the company and to discover the requirements of the professional world. In the Masters program, these internships are also an opportunity for the student designer to demonstrate his or her design project management skills.
Training with an apprenticeship contract
Created in 2006, the CFA Design & Innovation is the only apprentice training center integrated in a major design school. It stands out in the European landscape for its unique 3-year and 5-year apprenticeship programs.
Supported by the Pays de la Loire Regional Council and the European Union, the CFA of L'École de design Nantes Atlantique offers a wide range of apprenticeship programs and trains 350 apprentices each year.
It offers students a unique training program:
- a hybrid training program combining academic and professional learning;
- paid training;
- State-recognized design degrees;
- better employability following graduation