Apprenticeship maintenance methods engineer

Mobility Work highlights maintenance jobs and their sometimes atypical careers.

For this third episode, it is Marc-Antoine Talva, CEO of Mobility Work, who tells us a little more about his training as a Maintenance Methods Engineer apprenticeship at Centrale Nantes, and in particular about apprenticeship and its opportunities in terms of professional integration in the world of industry.

Mobility Work: Can you present your academic background? How did you come to work in the field of industrial maintenance?

Marc-Antoine Talva : After a BAC STI Electrical Engineering at Lycée Jean Guéhenno in Fougères (35), I had my high school diploma in catch up, penalized by mathematics and mechanics. As a result, having not found a course to integrate, I made the choice to repeat this same terminal to give me time to think about my future. I therefore opted for a BTS Industrial Maintenance. During these two years, I improved my academic results and picked up the basics in physics, mechanics and mathematics.

I then joined an ATS (higher technician adaptation) preparatory class at Lycée Livet in Nantes, which corresponds to a transition year for those who wish to join an engineering school following a BTS or an IUT: this year was very difficult, whether in terms of courses, pace or personal investment. I was finally accepted to Centrale Nantes as an apprentice with the ITII (Institut des Techniques d'Ingénieur de l'Industrie) Pays de la Loire, in the Mechanical specialty. During these three years, I studied materials, design, management, etc.

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I completed my apprenticeship at FMGC (a subsidiary specialized in foundry of the material processing specialist Farinia Group) within the Service Methods Maintenance. The main missions consisted in conducting various reliability studies and implementing a CMMS solution. After my diploma, I stayed in this company, always with the implementation of an industrial maintenance management system as my main mission. It was during this period that the idea of Mobility Work was born, to finally found the company with Morgane Guinot in May 2016.

Why did you opt for an engineering school after the BTS Industrial Maintenance?

During my second year internship at BTS Industrial Maintenance, I discovered a passion for mathematics and maintenance methods. I also understood that it would be more difficult for me to evolve in the industrial world if I stopped my studies after the BTS Maintenance. My tutor at the time then told me about the ATS preparatory classes, and I therefore decided to follow this upgrade rather than trying to enter engineering school directly and become an engineer methods maintenance engineer by apprenticeship.

In your opinion, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the maintenance methods engineering diploma as an apprenticeship?

The main strength of this training is the vision it provides. In this way, you learn to take a step back, adapt, self-learn, etc. If I lack information on a subject that I don't know, I know how to take the time to analyze and understand the situation while putting actions in place to overcome this difficulty.

The main weak point would be that the level of some courses remains very far from industrial reality. Learning makes it possible to counterbalance this weakness, and to keep in touch with the reality on the ground. It is easier to understand why some engineers at the end of continuing education fall flat on many subjects.

How do you explain the increasingly obvious absence of industrial maintenance courses in the school curriculum?

Maintenance has always been seen as the fifth wheel in the body. It is not sufficiently valued in schools, which does not make it possible to attract students to these courses, which are however at the heart of the companies in which they will work. We all know that if maintenance fails, the whole factory is sick. All of this has a direct impact on maintenance hours in the engineering school program.

However, the arrival of new technologies should change the way students perceive industrial maintenance, and therefore school programs.

Why did you choose the maintenance methods engineering diploma as an apprenticeship?

Simply because I needed to start gaining experience in the field, so that I could understand what I was learning at school in a more concrete way.

What is the main difficulty that you may have encountered during your school career?

The very steady pace for 3 years, between exams, dissertations, courses and work in a company, which is not easy. However, it teaches us to ingest a fairly large amount of work, which later becomes very useful.

What is the main difficulty encountered when you were in business?

The lack of agility and the time needed to validate ideas and projects. That is the difference between theory and practice: there are men with different cultures between the two. All this therefore leads to decisions that can slow down the implementation of an idea or a project.

Any last piece of advice for those who want to opt for a career in industrial maintenance?

Industry and maintenance are in full evolution with the arrival of Big Data and new technologies (IIoT, etc.). The world of maintenance is completely reinventing itself, even if we must not forget the essential: people, culture and management. Studying in the industrial maintenance sector, where it will always be very easy to find work, is a wise choice.

Thanks to Mr. Talva for his testimony. To be alerted to our next article dedicated to maintenance jobs and training, follow us on our social networks!