Saturday January 29, the higher institute of aeronautics and space (ISAE-SUPAERO), welcomes the 11th edition of the Talks of Excellence. An annual event, which had welcomed up to more than 1,000 people before the Covid crisis, is part of the National Week of Success Ropes, which worked to promote equal opportunity.

In particular, by organizing days of meetings and exchanges for middle and high school students. This year, the event will take place in a hybrid format (face-to-face and digital). Thus, in agreement with the partner establishments, a panel of students from priority education colleges in Toulouse (REP+), supervised by their teachers, will be welcomed on the campus, avenue Edouard Belin in Toulouse.

Interview with Cécile Latournerie, head of the OSE (equal opportunities) program at the engineering school.

How were the Interviews of Excellence, which have been held for ten years, born?

This national association, an emergence of the 16th century Club, which has always valued diversity as an asset. In Toulouse, it is a former Supaero, Boun Ngy Chhuon, who himself came from diversity, and who was keen to promote the school of the Republic [actuellement chef de bureau à la sous-direction des systèmes d’information du ministère de l’Intérieur, NDLR]. The number of training courses is growing and we had more than 1,100 people, two years ago, who had traveled to our campus to find out about courses, training, careers, with professionals who come on a voluntary basis, Saturday afternoon, every year. There is a real investment from the school.

Did the Covid crisis force you, last year, to organize the event remotely?

On a resumed whole and on a mobilizing force of seventy speakers, including the former rugby player Emile Ntamack for the sports sector. Students managed the chat and the organization part. This year, it’s a bit the same thing, except that we will welcome on campus about fifty young people from REP and REP establishments, from the political districts of the city. They are the target who are furthest from the formation. We thought it would be important for them to be able to come and meet the professionals face-to-face. We wanted to keep this part.

For ten years, have the Entretiens d’Excellence and Isae-Supaero succeeded in attracting these young people from priority neighborhoods to the training offered?

Of seventeen sectors of activity at Supaero, we are not only in aeronautics and space. And not on the promotion of IOsae-Supaero either, more on training. For eleven years, we have been following the Cordées de la Réussite program, equal opportunities, we carry out projects in schools, students also travel to give lessons. At each promotion, on one of the young people who come from different school districts. We are a general education institute – it should be pointed out – with specializations in scientific and technical subjects.

Precisely, are these areas where we need new brains, by recruiting more widely?

We are a generalist school. The integrated are very wide: some leaving will set up a start-up, will work in sustainable development, many will go in ways that are neither aeronautics nor space. The aeronautics sector is in the process of reinventing itself, taking into account current issues and a need for people who think, for example, of the planes of tomorrow. The will of the school, it is all the same to value the opening. For girls, in particular, we carry out actions on women engineers, women in scientific and technical studies, also on the question of disability within the framework of a section on equal opportunities.

Is there a Thomas Pesquet effect, who was a former Supaero student, in the motivations of new candidates?

Among the new applicants for the recruitment of astronauts, many come from Supaero. Thomas has greatly changed the way we look at space. He continues to encourage this discourse which allows Supaero students to project themselves into space careers. He is hyperpositive for the new generations.