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Company partnerships are vital for teaching and research at Polytech' Marseille. This is immediately clear, as most of the members of its Board of Directors are industrial leaders (including the Chairman).

As for teaching, it is important to offer our students comprehensive training, including knowledge of company practises. This is achieved through specific courses based, in particularly, on human and industrial relations, and immersion in a professional environment through placements which last for a total of about 8 months. The end-of-studies industrial placement, in the third year, begins at the beginning of February and runs until the end of August. Within its framework, the student is placed in an engineering role, and the company entrusts him with a project based on real development needs. He undergoes an assessment by the industrial tutor and he then has to defend a report before a board of examiners, which includes this tutor. For confidential work, all possible precautions are taken to avoid accidental disclosure (small board of examiners, report handed over to the company immediately after the defence). Furthermore, about 60 lecturers, who are professionals from the industrial sector, are responsible for teaching skills in the relevant areas of application, development and process monitoring. They thus have considerable influence on the orientation and development of teaching programs.

As concerns research , this partnership not only leads to an appropriate choice of research themes, but also creates actions which aim to achieve a fair balance between desirable short-term reactivity (to meet the needs of the company) and longer term scientific development, based on high level research.

Training and research come together at the Doctoral studies level, leading to the preparation of a Thesis which can be wholly or partly financed by industry. The chosen subjects very often intend to open new technological horizons. This progress is thus based on studies with a more fundamental nature, as it requires increased knowledge of the basic physical mechanisms of industrial processes.

This research partnership thus involves research work which is carried out within the framework of a contractual relationship meeting two requirements: the enhancement of skills or research results on the one hand, and the setting up of a skills centre of mutual interest on the other hand.

These actions thus enable industrial partners to know more about our students and their training, making their integration and recruitment easier. This also enables the School to stay in close contact with industries and service companies, guaranteeing effectiveness and dynamism.

This partnership can also be strengthened or initiated through the payment of apprenticeship taxes (at middle management / executive level), which the industrialist can direct towards a particular teaching branch of the School or towards the development of specific resources (e.g.: IT resources, practical work, multimedia equipment, etc). Within this framework, personalised feedback is ensured through information on how the tax is used.