Renault trains newly promoted future managers at Grenoble Business School

On May 29, 74 Renault employees following a managerial promotion programme will begin a new training course developed by Grenoble business school. The participants come from all business functions (production, engineering, purchasing, sales and services) and all Renault sites in France. Developed with the school’s teaching staff, the programme aims to give participants insight into such topics as strategy, economics, international business, etc. and to develop their approach as future Renault managers.

Renault was interested in the schools’ ability to adapt to an audience from technical and industrial backgrounds, with initial vocational qualifications ranging from certificate to degree level, and also in the diversity of the school’s teaching methods. These range from serious games to practical exercises, role play and drama methods.

“ Promotion to managerial status contributes to motivation. It enables employees to pursue their careers while broadening their level of responsibility in project management, command line management or expertise ,” explains Frédérique Lelièvre, head of the managerial promotion programme at Renault. This policy was put in place by Renault in 1990 (date of the first agreement signed between labour and management representatives) for employees, technicians and supervisors. Today, 20% of Renault managers in France have followed this in-house managerial promotion programme.

For Frédérique Lelièvre, “ by renewing the agreement on December 6, 2011, we aimed to simplifying processes while maintaining requirements on the employability of newly promoted future managers. In this way, Renault is restating its commitment to managerial promotions, which respond both to employee ambitions and to company needs .” Developing skills, reinforcing the diversity of management profiles and helping employees take on wider responsibilities are the fundamental challenges of this policy..


Today, Renault has two programmes for promotion to managerial status:

- one for employees under 35 with two years in higher education, who will continue their studies with a leading business school, engineering school or university as part of a work-study course;

- the second for employees over 35 with no minimum qualification requirements, who will follow the training course developed with Grenoble business school.