What is the secret to taking academic knowledge and transforming it into workplace skills? The Ecole Centrale de Lyon in Ecully, France, is committed to answering that question, putting it into place in their classes, and ensuring that their students are workplace-ready when they leave. Their Innovation Framework includes both a classic course syllabus and a list of the real-world skills students will need and learn for every course. A balanced mix of traditional lectures, self-study, team projects, and internships provides the means to put those skills into practice.

About Design Thinking: Pedagogy in the IDEA School

EMLYON Business School, known for their entrepreneurial expertise, has partnered with Ecole Centrale of Lyon, a renowned engineering school, to develop new learning approaches that blend together engineering and management. They will integrate these pedagogies into a new business-engineering hybrid institution they are launching with the Ying-Yang Alliance, called the IDEA School (Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship, and Art.)

The IDEA School will foster a higher education science and business culture that produces future manager-engineers. As part of their coursework, students will generate innovative business projects. Group work and collaborative workshops will ensure that each project and prototype reflects diverse perspectives. The students will take courses that incorporate serious games to promote more active learning. Their classrooms will be equipped with HP Tablet PCs, interactive whiteboards, and other multimedia solutions.