Bouygues Construction has upgraded its business game, the "Bouygues Construction Challenge". Created in 1997 to bring students into closer contact with the professional world, the competition, which is one-of-a-kind in the construction sector, is based on a real project management scenario, and is distinctive for two main reasons: the teams are from varied backgrounds and it is very competitive. 

This annual competition has had a major overhaul this year, though its traditional philosophy has been retained and a number of more modern ingredients have been added. 

For the game's 16^th year, the Group has opted for a much more interactive style of play by developing a first Internet-based "challenge". It has just gone online on the Studyka platform, which specialises in business games. The participants, students from prestigious universities and higher education colleges, will respond to a call for proposals for a shopping centre of the future. Throughout the challenge, a series of messages will be broadcast on social networks. A community of former participants, project teams, panels of judges and education liaison staff will develop around the competition. The winners of this first event will directly qualify for the final phase of the Bouygues Construction Challenge. 

The main competition will take place on 28 and 29 November. Some sixty students from around twenty universities and colleges will spend two days together. For the first time this year, one day will be spent on teambuilding activities to enable competitors to get to know one another, to discover their different personalities and to make the Challenge more fun. The campus managers and education liaison staff will join in with the games. 

The case study normally used to take place over 48 hours, but this time it will last for 24 hours. Grouped into multi-skilled teams (commercial/management and engineers) with the task of responding to a call for tenders, the students will in turn play the roles of commercial staff, technicians, financiers, managers, designers, developers and builders in order to draw up and present their proposals to a judging panel of decision-makers from the Group. At the end of a marathon competition, they will be assessed on their teamwork, determination, ingenuity, time management and negotiation skills. 

The Bouygues Construction Challenge helps students to find out about the diversity of construction business jobs. An excellent recruitment tool, it enables internships, international business volunteering opportunities and jobs to be offered to the best candidates at the end of the competition. Since it was started more than 800 students have taken part and around a third of them have joined Bouygues Construction for an internship, an international volunteering experience or a job, in support roles or at the heart of production. With the new version of the Challenge, the Group is hoping to better communicate about what it does, to increase the diversity of participant profiles and to give them an even more positive experience of the company. 

Having recruited 3,000 new staff in 2011, Bouygues Construction remains a major recruiter in France. This level of recruitment is supported by an excellent order book and a large number of projects already underway (Philharmonie de Paris at La Villette, Marseille Velodrome, Nîmes-Montpellier bypass, etc.).