The Vocational Master’s in ‘Management of Real Estate Services’ was set up in response to calls from the real estate profession and has been officially recognized by its representative body.

A Master’s level - called for by the profession.

The partner companies of the IMSI created this programme because they wanted to develop a high-level training course to train future executives and managers for the real estate sector and to ensure that they had valorizing job opportunities.

The IMSI is the leading source for providing real estate professionals qualified to take on complex and delicate assignments to ensure client satisfaction and loyalty. The course has been validated by the CEFI. This validation is recognition by the CEFI of the quality of the training given and the importance of this training in fulfilling a need for high-level skills in this sector of activity.

Members of the ESAM teaching staff are working professionals: executives, managing directors, experts, lawyers, consultants from the IGS group, and from other specialized agencies, independent trainers and consultants. These specialists share their know-how and up-to-date experience with the students. Their courses are based on situations experienced in business within their specialized field. The theoretical, technical and methodological teachings are consequently backed up by real life situations.

The Vocational Master's level in ‘Managing Real Estate Services’ is taught through a ‘block-release’ format which is backed up by ESAM’s professional expertise.

Why combine work and study?
This educational format allows the student to integrate the working environment smoothly and to establish their career plans.
The choice of a 'block-release’ format shows a desire to facilitate permanent interactivity between in-company assignments and in-class learning.

How the block-release is organized.
- October to January: full time at the school
- February to June: in the company
The time in the company is divided into four parts. At the end of each of these different parts, the students go back to school for two days of synthesis seminars which enables them to learn from the practical period which has just ended.
- July – September: possibility to prolong internship in the company
Students must present their thesis orally to an examination panel in July

The IMSI course includes the writing of a professional thesis. Students choose the subject matter of the thesis from a list of suggestions given at the beginning of the year. The list is compiled from current issues that figure among the preoccupations of our partner companies. The students therefore express their thoughts on the issues alongside those of professionals. They are supervised during their work by a research consultant who is a collaborator from one of the companies who is interested in the subject in a professional capacity.
The applied research work is carried out in a two-person team. This organizational choice illustrates the IMSI’s intention to give the students experience of working in partnership: an ability that they will have to put into practice and develop during their professional life. They have to present their thesis orally to an examination panel made up of professionals.
Examples of thesis subjects for the 2007 graduate year:

• How to defend prices and profit margins in real-estate management services
• Evolutions in the notion of responsibility within the professions of property administration and real-estate transactions
• Can Internet threaten the role of professional estate agents ?
• For the public, how important is a brand name in the real-estate services sector ?
• Buy to rent and inheritance
• Do small or family-run property management agencies have a future when up against groups ?
• Is the real estate market influenced by cycles ?
• Is France ahead in the sector of real estate services ?
• Does the ENL law (national housing plan) foreshadow a legislative change on rental revenue ?
• The conflict between the common interest of a co-owners association and the individual interest of a co-owner.
• The rental market and tax exemption measures
• How to increase client loyalty in a real estate services group
• Developments and modification to Robien-Borloo laws: Is the investor ready to pay a social dividend ?
• Does consumerism pose a threat or an opportunity to property management or real estate transactions ?
• Certification: is it an issue for real estate professions ?

Our priority is to ensure the students qualify successfully. Therefore the IMSI gives each student individualized supervision. The teaching staff at the IMSI offer continuous tutoring. In-company supervision is undertaken by the director of the estate agency where the student works. The director can delegate this responsibility to one of the service managers who will supervise the day-to-day practical training. However, he must still ensure that the supervision and support is adequate. It is the director who assesses the student’s work at the end of the period and gives an evaluation mark. The teaching staff are in regular contact with the host companies, conducting on-site visits and receiving interim reports by telephone. The IMSI provides all tutors with preparation and monitoring documents for the practical training.

This monitoring means the student can position themselves against their initial professional goals; modify them if needs be; adapt themselves to personal goals and prepare themselves for their working life under the best conditions possible.

The pedagogy based on action and group work encourages students to learn how to behave correctly in a team and builds leadership, listening and negotiation skills necessary for any business executive.
Some subjects taught give rise to immediate practical application calling for certain techniques that develop professional behaviour: oral expression, holding a meeting or interview which is videoed for training purposes.

Each student, during one of the synthesis seminars, must give a "career presentation". There are three main objectives:

• To stand back and assess professional practice by analysing a real life situation
• To know how to look at situations with a critical eye and be able to recommend better practice
• To make the link between this experience and theoretical lessons

The students give an oral presentation outlining their conclusions and opinion and defending their choices: just as they will have to do in the future before a Board of Directors. The students are assessed on their ability to show their professionalism and the skills that they have developed and not just on their ability to repeat what they have been taught.