Icam training courses are changing: we explain everything!

Higher Education
13 Oct 2023

For the start of the 2023 academic year, Icam has changed the way it presents its courses. The aim? To make it easier for applicants to understand and adapt to changes in the Bac and the diversity of profiles likely to join Icam.

How does one become an Icam engineer today? If we have to offer a very concise answer to this question, here it is: by becoming an Icam Arts et Métiers generalist engineer, under student or apprentice status, via a multitude of access routes. Or, more recently, by obtaining a specialised diploma in Industrial Digital Systems (SNI), under apprentice status. For the time being, this course is offered exclusively at the Strasbourg-Europe site.

The arrival of the Strasbourg site within the Icam group is, moreover, one of the reasons why Icam has completely overhauled its approach to training. But that’s not all! As Carole Marsella explains: “It’s important for us to welcome a wide variety of students with different profiles to our campuses. The recent changes to the baccalauréat make this diversity even more important, as there are more and more options. We now offer a multitude of routes to the Icam engineering diploma, enabling our candidates to find the best way to get there, depending on their profile and aspirations.

A wide variety of preparatory courses

To become a generalist engineer, several preparatory courses are now available to start your studies at Icam:
– scientific preparatory courses (associated CPGE)
– international preparatory courses (integrated preparatory courses)
– professional preparatory courses (associated BTS or BUT)
– or the International Bachelor (formerly known as the Open Course), a cross-cultural course that can be taken simultaneously in 6 countries and which, after four years, leads to the Icam Arts et Métiers general engineering course.

“Carole Marsella explains: “Students wishing to become engineers under apprentice status will, for example, follow the vocational preparatory course, while those with a very ‘pure science’ profile are more likely to opt for the scientific preparatory course. The International Bachelor is for young people with a creative and agile mindset, who want to experiment and explore the world; as for the International Prep, it also offers this kind of openness, but in a more traditional setting”.

A fifth option, the digital preparatory course (prépa intégrée), enables students to go on to train as Industrial Digital Systems engineers, with a view to becoming Industrial Digital Systems engineers.

Prospects for the Bachelor’s degree

The big news is the emergence of the ‘International Bachelor’ designation, which corresponds to what was previously known as an ‘open pathway’, but which now opens up other possibilities: “We’re moving towards the Anglo-Saxon model, which is more explicit about international opportunities for students,” adds Carole Marsella. In the long term, this may also enable us to apply for accreditations such as ABET – American Board of Engineering and Technology – if appropriate”. It should be noted that this Bachelor’s degree is a school Bachelor’s degree, which does not lead to a diploma as such, but which enables students to go directly on to the last two years of the general engineering cycle, in order to obtain the Icam diploma, accredited by the CTI.