Two distinct, unique and complementary experiences! The Humacité© and Climacité© initiatives are specific to Excelia. They are both…
Adapting to change, listening to others, and showing a sense of commitment, Humacité© has been the hallmark of our higher education group since 2005. Although all students have the opportunity to carry out a project, it is compulsory for certain programmes such as the Bachelor in Tourism and Hospitality Management in Year 2. For up to eight weeks, full-time, students commit to take an active part as a volunteer, in an action of general public interest, helping people in need. The project takes place within an organisation (associations, NGOs, public institutions, etc.) and involves a tripartite agreement between the student, the host organisation and Excelia.
As with a search for an internship, the challenge is to identify the preferred sector in which you wish to help and to ask yourself the question: ‘What issue concerns me the most?’
There are seven possible areas of involvement for a Humacité© project:
Each year hundreds of students leave their comfort zone to discover more about others and themselves. Organising your own Humacité© project is also part of the experience and your education. To do this, a student can make use of the skills acquired in the Project Management lessons, and all students are guided and assisted before, during, and after the project.
International projects are authorised in accordance with the recommendations of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Each learner should consult the website www.diplomatie.gouv.fr for specific advice about their destination. During the process, students have access to a regularly updated database of projects already carried out, with a description and contact details of the parties involved, given that close relations have been established with many different organisations over the past few years. Requests are examined by a committee that reviews the quality and pertinence of the project.
Humacité© projects in recent years have taken place in various countries such as the United States, Cameroon, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Peru, Senegal, Sweden, Tanzania, Nepal, South Africa, Mauritius, to name but a few.
With a view to continuous improvement, Excelia is keen to measure the effects of an experience such as Humacité© and therefore conducts assessments before, and after, the projects in order to feed the Skills Observatory managed by DEX, the experiential learning department.
Launched in December 2020 as the environmental equivalent of Humacité©, the Climacité© initiative is an integral part of all Excelia programmes. It is very different from an internship in a company and constitutes an experience in personal development. Climacité© stems from a pressing need, namely to educate students about the world in which we live, and to move away from an alarmist vision of global warming by undertaking a solidarity project dedicated to the environment. These projects place students alongside people working in the field to experience what is actually being done! Climacité© is a veritable experiential training initiative that puts students in a real-life situation to gain valuable practical experience to complement their academic knowledge in the fields of Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
This project of 2-8 weeks, which can be carried out within an organisation or in the form of one-off actions to promote citizenship, is based on two inseparable criteria:
As a pioneer in incorporating social, societal and environmental responsibility into its programmes, with the introduction of Masters focused on sustainable development as early as 1999, Excelia has created the Climacité© initiative with certain goals:
Climacité© is in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, with a low carbon footprint as a prerequisite. It is therefore out of the question to take a plane to collect waste for a fortnight on a beach on the other side of the world! The project can, of course, be carried out abroad, but it should be done close to the location of a student’s internship, academic expatriation... or indeed Humacité© project!
Students from the Bachelor in Tourism and Hospitality Management carry out their Climacité© project in December or May of Year 1. By 2025, 100% of Excelia students will have carried out a Climacité© project in parallel with Humacité©.
Projects can take different forms and are carried out in tourist locations, with the clear objective of ‘citizenship’ and ‘sustainability’, and a positive impact on climate change: raising awareness about ocean conservation, preventing food waste by collecting products from shops that would otherwise be thrown away and using them to make meals, cleaning up the beaches on the French coast… or perhaps simply setting up a waste sorting system, raising awareness of the need to avoid using plastic, protecting and safeguarding the coastline or the marine environment, contributing to a region’s ecological transition project, etc.
This is a great way to experience the challenges of environmental protection and of adapting to climate change in a real-life situation, and to start developing the mindset of a future responsible manager!
The Humacité© initiative offers students the opportunity to live social, humanitarian and civic experience in France or abroad, for up to 2 months, and involves…
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