For the twentieth year running, the LVMH Group has been ranked number one by business school students in France, according to Sweden-based Universum Group, which publishes an annual ranking of the most attractive companies for students and professionals.
The fact that LVMH has come out on top is hardly surprising given the luxury giant’s economic performance (it currently employs more than 213,000 people worldwide and has recorded sales of 86.2 billion euros in 2023) and at a time when, in the fashion industry, luxury is the talk of the town. But this result is also due to a number of special initiatives, highlighted by LVMH in a release.
Universum Group, which describes itself as a ‘specialist in employer branding’, compiles its ranking making use of a panel conducted at 173 schools or universities and across 139 different fields of study.
In 2023, LVMH recruited more than 60,000 people, including more than 30,000 young people under the age of 30 worldwide. It has organised more than 600 meetings between employees and students at French universities and business schools. These include: HEC Paris, ESSEC, Sciences Po Paris, EDHEC, CentraleSupélec, Ecole Polytechnique, EHL Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, and more.
The aim of these meetings is to enable employees to share their experiences working for the 75 brands and to exchange views on the luxury sector.
Majority of business school students in France aspire to work at LVMH
LVMH’s education strategy is based on three pillars: academic interaction, online knowledge sharing and in-house programmes for young graduates.
LVMH has also developed an online programme, Inside LVMH, which was launched in March 2021 and has more than 260,000 registrants worldwide and 78,000 certified employees.
This educational website is open to all, students and experienced professionals alike. It offers access to exclusive content (luxury and society, supply chain, retail and the group’s environmental roadmap), dedicated to the challenges of the six business sectors.
These sectors are: wines and spirits, fashion and leather goods, perfumes and cosmetics, watches and jewellery, selective retailing, and the hospitality and media sector.
Registrations for the next intake are open until May 16, 2024.
Finally, the group and its houses also offer around forty graduate programs, designed to develop the skills of young graduates and their experience of the luxury professions available within the LVMH ecosystem.
More generally, in 2023, 18,000 LVMH employees had the opportunity to benefit from internal, functional or inter-house mobility, in another business sector or internationally.
Note that the companies ranked behind LVMH are (in order of students’ preference): L’Oréal, Hermès, Apple, Chanel, Google, J.P. Morgan, Mercedes-Benz, Goldman Sachs and Air France.
This article was originally published on FashionUnited.FR. Translation and edit from French into English by Veerle Versteeg.