Philippe Grassaud, president of Pigier schools, Eduservices group is the guest of It marks us.
Gervais Pigier was originally an accountant who was a great friend of the Boucicauts, Félix Potin, founders of the department stores of the time. He found himself faced with a problem of employment, since at that time people were not trained to work in this new activity represented by department stores.
This is how he created the first accounting courses, it was he who imported the accounting method in part double debit/credit, modern accounting. In 1877, Gervais Pigier also invented correspondence courses. At the time, the means of transport were rare, on the other hand the Post office already functioned very well, and it is thus that he was able to develop this mode of teaching.
At the time, it was totally revolutionary because women did not work outside the farms. Pigier was one of the first schools to allow the liberation of women, thanks to professional education. Because of this strategy, Pigier will develop rapidly. In 1931, there were already more than 100 Pigier schools in France, and six others abroad and then after the war, the 30 glorious years would represent a golden age for Pigier. These are battalions of shorthand typists who are then formed.
At the end of the 1980s, computers and word processing arrived, which gradually led to the scarcity of secretaries. This forced us to adapt, explains Philippe Grassaud: “We went from the secretariat to the assistantship, we went from the typewriter to the computer, we modified our programs.”
Pigier, however, went from more than 100 schools to 25… “There are fewer local schools but larger campuses. Pigier’s great strength today is professional education based on experimentation. Thanks to apprenticeship contracts, the young people we train are paid by companies, and their training is financed by vocational training organisations. Not only does it cost them nothing, but these young people earn money”, emphasizes Philippe Grassaud.