Thursday 24th March, the Montpellier Business School and the SNCF Group signed a partnership agreement. « These types of partnerships will carry the Montpellier Business School even further forward. They demonstrate the interest that large enterprises have for the Montpellier Business School and its dynamism », developed Jean-Christophe Arguillère, President of the Education and Training Centre of the CCIT.
Visibly very happy with this opportunity to work hand in hand, both partners mentioned the great importance of having close collaboration between the large regional enterprises and higher level education. The agreement plans to facilitate access to the SNCF enterprise for trainees, apprentices and future graduates: « You are [editor's note: the SNCF Group] the largest consumer of our students from the business management and control stream. We wish to consolidate this stream but also to open up to other profiles. », stated François-Xavier Thery, Director of Development and Enterprise Relations of the Montpellier Business School. The agreement also plans for the participation of the SNCF Group to present its various professions or work on research themes such as the experimentation of regional express train journeys for one euro.
Projects in abundance
« THE SNCF has changed a lot. We exchange ideas, we accept criticism and we need the contribution of grey matter.»,  declared Jean Ghedira, Regional Director of the SNCF Group. The new partners mentioned the possibility of organising an SNCF steering committee on the Montpellier Business School premises. An opportunity for us to show them the site, our activities, and develop the next steps to ensure concrete results from this agreement. « We could also take advantage of this occasion to organise for you a conference on  competitiveness, innovation or even motivation. », suggested Didier Jourdan, before proposing to the SNCF Regional Director to join the executive  comittee of the association Odissee (Organisation of Dialogue and Social Intelligence in  Society and the Entreprise) which organises conferences and seminars between all the social actors, using their own method of dialogue.Holding out the classical partner visitor's book to Jean Ghedira, Didier Jourdan concluded the signing of this partnership : « We have many things to do and we are delighted ! »

SNCF Languedoc-Roussillon:
-          4500 employees
-          54 million for the renovation of the Saint-Roch Station starting summer 2011
-          1^st experimentation of this size of the regional express train journey for 1 euro on the Nîmes-Grau du Roi line starting 1^st July
-          Several hundreds of apprentice contracts each year

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