CESI was founded in 1958 as the Centre des Etudes Superieures Industrielles.
Set up by five major French companies including Renault to deal with a national shortage of production engineers, it has developed steadily by identifying gaps in provision and offering inter-company training courses. The first courses for senior technicians was introduced in 1998.
A member of the Union of Independent Grands Ecoles, it operates across five engineering disciplines: civil and construction, industry and innovation, information technology and digital, quality, safety, environment and sustainable development, and human resources and management.
Courses range from one-year gateway options integrating French culture, language and methodology to senior technician level to bachelor, professional and specialised masters, a Grand Ecole diploma and doctoral programmes, which are conducted through HESAM University.
The Grand Ecole qualification consists of a two year post-baccalaureate programme followed by three years of engineering. There is an emphasis on "Learning from Group Life" with students conducting projects in groups numbering between six and 12.
While CESI¡¯s headquarters are in the Paris suburb of Nanterre and it also has a campus at La Defense, the bulk of its work is in more than 20 provincial French locations and five overseas centres ¨C Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, Oran and Algiers in Algeria and Douala in Cameroon.
