Making your work placement agreements electronic and dematerialise your internship agreements is a strategic challenge. Managing agreements is a time-consuming business. Time-consuming and resource-intensive, with little added value, it’s a job that needs to be optimised.
Why dematerialise your management of work placement agreements?
Internship agreements, traditionally managed on paper, represent a significant administrative burden for schools. Regardless of the size of your institution. ENSAI manages between 300 and 450 agreements each year, and the University of Angers 8,500 agreements.
It’s a must for students looking for work experience. It’s an obligation that will be extended to general and technological high schools in 2024. From now on, all pupils in seconde will have to complete a compulsory 2-week observation period. The need to modernise has become clear in the face of increasing administrative tasks with little added value and, above all, high costs.
The immediate benefits of dematerialisation for job placement managers
Time saving
The introduction of dematerialisation has resulted in substantial time savings and increased productivity. At ENSAI, this has resulted in a 30% reduction in the time spent on administrative tasks. Valérie Chrétien has also been able to use this time to “take over the management of the student life department”. This is a real victory, enabling her to concentrate on higher added-value activities that have a real impact.
Another time-saver is data verification. As everything is centralised and computerised, it is extremely quick and easy to access the different stages of the agreement. There’s no need to call back the student or the company – you know exactly where the process stands. What’s more, thanks to the electronic signature, all the parties involved can sign independently. This saves time for all parties.
We had students with no agreement on Monday morning, and within 2 hours everything was sorted out. They were able to start their work placement within the day. (Virginie Grimault)
We had students with no agreement on Monday morning, and within 2 hours everything was sorted out. They were able to start their work placement within the day. (Virginie Grimault)Internship history: a data asset
The AlumnForce management platform gives you a complete history of your students’ placements. Period, duration, and above all companies and contacts… The history of placements is now paperless, integrated directly into the platform, and very easily accessible.
For Valérie Chrétien, “it’s an invaluable tool for helping our students find placements with companies that have a history with the school“. It’s a vote of confidence for students, who can also contact former students and ask for their feedback.
It’s also a considerable asset when it comes to managing your corporate relations. You keep all the important information about the companies and, above all, the contacts to use for your campaigns.
Reducing costs
When you dematerialise your work placement agreements, you also save money. On average, our partners cut their costs by 50%. Virginie Grimault explains: “After a very thorough audit, we calculated that an agreement was costing us €4. With the dematerialisation platform, we’re now down to €2 per agreement“.
In addition to these savings, there’s the added benefit of a better environmental impact. By doing away with paper, not only at home but also at work. They won’t have to print out documents, scan them and send them to you – and they’ll be very grateful!
Involving all stakeholders: benefits for all players
For members of your establishment
The agreements are mainly managed by dedicated administrative managers. Sometimes, a whole teaching team is involved. In these cases, dematerialising internship agreements becomes a key factor in engaging all the parties involved.
In the case of the University of Angers, there are 8 components involved. This brings together 17 administrators and over 70 teachers, all of whom are involved in monitoring work placements. It is therefore essential to have a simple, user-friendly tool that centralises all the information in one place. Each component then becomes autonomous in the management of agreements. And above all, the platform provides invaluable support for teachers in their pedagogical monitoring! Everyone has their own access and can monitor their students easily, sorting by agreement status (none, in progress, signed, etc.). Once again, this saves time, allowing teachers to spend more time on high value-added tasks such as CV support or work placement monitoring.
(Virginie Grimault)
For students
The platforms’ user interface is designed to be intuitive, making it easy to manage agreements and minimising errors by automating the process of filling in information. What’s more, if your students apply for a vacancy in your career center, the company details will already be pre-filled. No more risk of errors in the company registration number or address!
What’s more, Virginie and Valérie have seen lasting benefits for their school. Students have a simple and pleasant experience of managing their placement agreement. A comfort during a sometimes stressful period. And once they’ve graduated, these alumni who are now professionals and looking for trainees don’t hesitate to come back to their former school to find the rare pearl. Many graduates come back to post internship offers because they know that the process will be simple, safe and quick.
For your corporate partners
As we have just seen, the dematerialisation of work placement agreements also has benefits for the company. The system simplifies administrative procedures and strengthens commitment through the effective use of electronic signatures. The validation process is simplified and unbeatable in speed.
In the long term, this service is real proof of reliability and professionalism for your partner companies. It’s a good way of strengthening your links with them and building a win-win relationship over the long term.
FAQ
What about the RGPD and the dematerialisation of work placement agreements?
You are still legally obliged to keep your students’ placement details for 10 years. Once this period has elapsed, the platform allows you to sort all agreements by date and archive them with a single click.
How many signatories can be added to a model agreement?
As many as you like, depending on your internal processes. Today, most of the establishments we work with use between 3 and 5 for information purposes.
Is it possible to include 2 establishments in the same agreement?
It is entirely possible to set up a specific agreement model with 2 institutions. This is very useful for double degrees, for example.
Do I have to sign electronically to use the platform?
Not necessarily. The electronic signature is an option to be added to the dematerialised agreement solution. However, we strongly recommend that you take this option to get the most out of the tool.
What do I do if my student applies to a company that is not in my career centre?
All you have to do is register the company manually when you create the agreement. It’s usually your students who will fill in this information. That’s a good thing for you, because it means you have one more potential partner!
If you have any questions about this solution, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’d be delighted to help you simplify and speed up the management of your work placement agreements!
