ENSAE Paris - École d'ingénieurs pour l'économie, la data science, la finance et l'actuariat
ENSAE Paris - École d'ingénieurs pour l'économie, la data science, la finance et l'actuariat
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Civil Servant training ("Administrateurs Insee")

ENSAE Paris trains INSEE administrators, who are the senior managers of the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. The high-level, multidisciplinary scientific training in social sciences and applied mathematics provided by ENSAE Paris is rooted in the specific nature of INSEE, whose missions combine economic studies and statistical production.
Civil Servant training ("Administrateurs Insee")

ENSAE Paris' link to INSEE is strong and rooted in history.

Competitive examination and admission

ENSAE Paris provides initial training for INSEE administrators, whether they are graduates of the École Polytechnique, the Écoles Normales Supérieures, or the external or internal competitive examination. Administrators are admitted to the second or third year by decision of the Director of Studies, depending on their previous experience and if they have not already graduated from ENSAE Paris. The career paths of Polytechnic students are detailed on this page.

ENSAE Paris students can become INSEE administrators through the external competition (Polytechniciens and Normaliens have reserved access). All successful candidates who have not already graduated from the ENSAE Paris engineering program must complete their training at the School.

Training

As a national statistical institute, whose work plays an essential role in informing public debate, INSEE has a duty to maintain the highest level of scientific mastery in the two fundamental fields of economics and applied mathematics. These orientations are reaffirmed in the INSEE 2025 strategic project. This requirement is the condition for the Institute's ability to conduct rigorous, credible, and innovative research. It has led INSEE to link the training of its administrators closely to research:

  • The engineering curriculum at ENSAE Paris thus brings graduates to the frontiers of research in these two disciplines.
  • Engineering students have the opportunity to take a research master's degree in their third year and then to pursue a doctorate in the School's laboratories.

After graduation, young administrators have the opportunity to pursue a thesis (in teaching, research or study-oriented positions), or to work at the school as teaching assistants, providing tutorials, lectures, and supervision of group work (applied statistics, theoretical economics). Some of the school's management and teaching staff are also INSEE administrators.

The training of INSEE administrators is generally identical to that of other students at ENSAE Paris. They can choose their specialization in the third year of the engineering program. However, they will have to respect certain rules regarding the choice of courses, which are designed to ensure that the young INSEE administrator has the skills required to work in the various fields of official statistics. They must take the following courses

  • Common methodological core: Surveys (2A course, to be taken during 3A if not taken in 2A)
  • Common integration core: Administrators' integration seminar (6 sessions): Mondays in November-December.
  • Semi-compulsory course 1: Quantitative methods: at least one course from among : Survey construction; Microeconometric evaluation of public policies; Macroeconometrics; Advanced Econometrics - panel data and duration models
  • Semi-Compulsory Course 2: Public Policy: at least one course from among: National accounting; Economics of redistribution and social protection; Public Finance - State budget, Public Finance - Economic theory, Political Economy; Public Economics
  • Semi-compulsory course 3: Statistical tools: at least one course among: Applied statistical learning; Advanced Machine Learning; Survey seminar; High-dimensional statistics; Statistics 3
  • Semi-compulsory course 4: Thematic depth: at least one course from among: Business Cycle Analysis; Demography; Environmental Economics; Economics of Inequality: Measures and Findings; Health Economics; Labor Economics; Topics in quantitative sociology

In addition, they will follow the common courses related to the reform of the High Civil Service. ENSAE is one of the training schools for the senior civil service in charge of developing and implementing the common core curriculum for the senior civil service, under the direction of the National Institute of Public Service (INSP).

Testimonies of administrators 

INSEE offers on its website 7 portraits of administrators to better understand the personality traits, the project and the career prospects of its administrators and to identify the spirit in which this body and the administration that houses it live: the values that animate those who have made this choice, the life paths that it allows them to build, etc.