- Mr. Jose Milano, CEO, Omnes Education
1.Please share an overview of your company's journey and business landscape in India
Omnes Education is the 2nd largest Education group in France. With 40000 students, we offer over 100 government certified programmes in English medium of instruction from Bachelor to Master in the fields of Management, Business, Engineering, Political Sciences, Humanities and Creation. We are already an international group with over 100 nationalities present in our programmes, now from 2023, in line with the strategic partnership developed between the governments of France and of India, but also with the stronger Indo European relationships, we have decided to develop our presence among the Indian students and Indian universities.
With the opening of our Representation Office in Bangalore, we believe that we would be able to cater better to the needs of the Indian candidates, of the companies we support and that we will be able to continue bringing value to our alumni in India. We also are continuously improving our services to welcome our English speaking international students to make sure that their specific needs are addressed.
We are looking also at developing strong university partnerships through student and faculty exchange as well as through the development of innovative collaboration.
2. As a business leader, how do you see the emerging opportunities and potential growth areas for your company or sector in India?
With India soon representing 25% of the world population between 15 and 24 year old, the country has strong needs in terms of Higher Education. To add up, the recent Education reform in the country, the NEP, aims at bringing from 33% to 50% of the Youth to higher education with an emphasis on better employability and quality of studies. We are ready to contribute with our programmes resolutely focusing on strong employability and well recognized in terms of academic quality.
3. Looking ahead, how do you see innovation and sustainable business practices shaping your company's growth strategy?
Innovation requires the capacity for complementary expertise to work together in finding solutions. We are now organizing our campuses to foster that interdisciplinary collaboration: with hybridation of programmes, co localization of our specialized schools (engineering on same campus as Business…)…
Via the recent acquisition of DataScientest, we are launching « TechAway », which will allow 20 000 of our non engineering students to acquire key skills in data/no code/software development/cybersecurity.
Though we are very focused on employability with excellent results: 10000 companies trust us for the recruitment of their talents and 92% of our graduates are employed at graduation, we also believe that our 6 incubators, la Fabrik, on our multidisciplinary campuses should bring even more innovative solutions to climate change as it fosters the development of teams of complementary founders.
4. With an increasing emphasis on CSR, how do you integrate your CSR goals with your business strategy?
With PACT, a programme co designed by OMNES Education and the SOS Group (1st social company in Europ), it s no less than 1900 students/year who would immerse themselves in the social and environment structures of SOS Group and provides them hands on exposure as well as inspiration to citizen engagement.
This is one (and a significant one) of the many commitments the group is making towards CSR.
Another one resides in the focus on developing quality programmes at affordable price:
- with 18000 work study students/year, the group is allowing many less privileged students to fulfil their dream of higher education.
- the scalability allows us to keep offering top standard studies environments and services without high inflation on tuition fees.
5. How has IFCCI and its business network added value to your operations in India?
IFCCI is the go to network in India for European organisations as it is very active and dynamic. It allows us to reach out to peers and work on projects for the collective benefits. With our representative in India, Mrs Maud LE BARS, we are for instance very active in the Higher Education committee of IFCCI where we are co organizing events on Education, but also looking at developing work opportunities for our students and alumni while delivering value to the companies in the network.