Supporting education through school outreach programs
Soitec’s commitment to education comes to life through programs targeting middle- and high-school students and at-risk youth.
Soitec’s flagship education program is SEMI High Tech U, designed to promote scientific and technical education to high-school sophomores. We also open our doors to middle-school students, teachers, and school principals, giving them a valuable opportunity to discover the world of business. Finally, we participate in an upward-mobility program run by French charity FACE (Fondation Agir Contre l’Exclusion). Each year the program helps one high-school graduate from an at-risk population prepare for the Grenoble Ecole de Management business school entrance exam. In 2006, Soitec signed the French government’s charter for businesses supporting equal opportunity in education.
Discovering careers in electronics at SEMI High Tech U
Launched in 2005 by STMicroelectronics and Grenoble Institute of Technology engineering school, the three-day SEMI High Tech U program welcomes 80 local high-school sophomores (50% of whom are girls). Soitec is an active participant, running a company tour complete with workshops, talks by employees, and a host of other activities designed to spark student interest in the degree programs and careers that await them in electronics and, more broadly, in industry.
Soitec discovery and observation days also enable schoolteachers to discover all aspects of our business, from our company culture and practices to our employees’ broad range of occupations. The goal is to raise teachers’ awareness of the opportunities in industry so that they can offer their students the best possible career guidance.
The upward-mobility program provides high-school graduates from at-risk populations with support preparing for the Grenoble Ecole de Management business school entrance exam. Grenoble Ecole de Management is France’s sixth-ranked business school. Soitec provides financial support, sponsoring one student each year to receive coaching from a manager over several months. Soitec also gives these students top priority for summer employment.