Our 2nd year Chimie ParisTech-PSL students have turned out to be very creative and engaged thanks to some new game-like elements proposed to them during English classes aiming not only at developing their soft skills in English necessary to find an internship abroad but also at gaining valuable real-world experience.

A great example of this is the students’ creation of video cvs in English, some of which have received significant attention and success. With over 1,4k views on youtube: one student discovered how impactful and effective these video cvs could be, leading her to take a step further and create a French version of it, which has also garnered an impressive traction of 1,1k views.

Thanks to a collaboration with UMP Madrid Eelisa partner, our students in small groups of four: 2 French ENSCP and 2 Spanish UMP students have been working on recording their job interviews in response to selected by them internship offers. This intercultural experience not only has obliged them to manage their small international teams but also has aimed at preparing our students to work in an international context.

To wrap up the professional skills of pitching on yourself, analyzing job offers and responding to them by writing cover letters and role-playing job interviews, our students were offered an innovative learning experience in the form of a serious escape game. This gamification activity has aimed at revising the main internship search vocabulary and notions in a more enjoyable and engaging form. It has also transformed the typical job interview into a dynamic hands-on challenge: the ‘marshmallow challenge’, the more and more often practiced by employers’ task-based interviews to see the candidates in action and to judge for themselves the applicants’ problem-solving, collaboration or teamwork skills.

This time the winners opened the lock to find some sweets. Let’s hope that next time thanks to this learning experience they will be able to find the key to their dream internships or jobs. This is what we wish them all.