There is no easy way of saying it, so we will come right out with it... to say that engineering undergraduates in the 21st century harbour feelings of mistrust about the corporate world would be something of an understatement. If the 1980s French punk group Bérurier Noir climbed back on stage today, they would surely adapt the lyrics of their song “The young say F*** the National Front” to take aim at multinational corporations instead of the National Front. In their documentary entitled “Tomorrow's engineers”, students at
INSA Lyon are almost just as blunt: “From a human point of view, I can't see myself working for a large organisation,” said one of the students. “I don't fancy having a conscience that is torn between what I really think and the job that I'm doing,” said another. “Apart from working in a multinational company or a massive organisation where you're just a machine and they couldn't care less about their employees, I don't see what else we can do,” explained another. Wherever this caricatured view comes from, it paints a black and white picture of a company that, upon reaching a certain size, is guilty of every possible sin and grinds down an entire generation of future engineers. Students reject multinational companies without having even set foot inside, and they tend to harbour notions of an idyllic world of associations, startups and NGOs without the benefit of any prior experience.
Such mistrust does not come out of the blue: “Three hundred years ago, renewable energy sources powered the world,” explains Jean-Marc Jancovici, a French engineer and expert in energy and climate issues. But since the industrial revolution, they have been continually replaced by fossil fuels, and there seems to be no way of backtracking. “Going back from a world of fossil fuels to a world powered exclusively by renewable energies would mean accepting a reduction in our purchasing power by a factor between 5 and 40,” he advises. This situation is simply unthinkable in a world where companies actively pursue a growth-driven business model. But young engineers feel responsible for leading the change. With their technical knowledge and their expertise in designing machines, they played an instrumental part in accelerating the industrial revolution, but those qualities and skills could potentially be harnessed to fix everything.
In a bid to ease tensions, students had to be given the opportunity to voice their opinions. Such was the aim of the national INSA roadshow organised by the INSA Foundation and VINCI, a leading global force for transforming our cities and territories. On six separate occasions, students were given a platform to ask their questions, voice their fears and express their aspirations. In return, a dozen experts from various entities, including large organisations, startups and associations, presented how they are striving to make a difference through their company in a world in crisis. Based on the wide-ranging question of “Can engineers fix the world?”, all participants were given the chance to defend their way of addressing the key challenges facing the 21st century. The event also proved to be the ideal opportunity to debunk certain misconceptions and remind students that the path leading to the future is not a dead-end road, but a gateway to a wealth of possibilities. Whether at university or in a company, they are not there to suffer, but instead take action and work together in building their future.
