National session 2025-2026
A unique session bringing together listeners from a wide range of professional backgrounds
Each year, this session brings together auditors from a wide range of sectors, including members of parliament and local councillors, senior civil servants, senior officers, high-level managers from the public and private sectors, employees from the voluntary sector, religious representatives, academics, journalists, trade union leaders, lawyers, consultants and entrepreneurs.
La diversity The candidates selected make an essential contribution to the richness of the national session, both in terms of their backgrounds and the diversity of the regions they represent. This session is designed to promote collective reflection on issues marked by their strong dimension interdepartmental and concerning all of the nation's sectors of activity.
The aim of the training is to provide a comprehensive and complex understanding of defence and security issues, all of which require coordinated responses and unity. actiona guarantee of their effectiveness.
Whatever the auditors' field of expertise, their skills are put to good use in a collegial discussion of strategic issues. With this in mind, the national session offers all its auditors a common method for drawing up a strategy and situational exercises designed to develop their decision-making skills.
Sharing experience, crossing points of view and decompartmentalising knowledge are a key objective of the national session. The collegial nature of the work undertaken, in the same way as the unique teaching model structuring the training provided, is a key feature of this session.
The educational triptych
A tried and tested method that combines theory and practice
The course is structured around three types of activity:
- Lecture-debates providing a basis for analysis, discussion and understanding of the issues addressed;
- Committee workThey are the guarantors of the collegiate nature of the discussions;
- Research assignmentsThese will be chosen on the basis of the issues to be addressed, so that the discussions can be backed up by practical experience.
"understanding in order to act, understanding each other in order to act together".
► Understanding for action
The national session gives auditors the opportunity to acquire an knowledge of defence and security issues, and to take ownership of the skills useful for strategic decision-making. In particular, you will learn how to :
- master the issues and problems of national and international defence and security, linked to public policies ;
- mobilise a critical, reasoned and innovative intellectual approach ;
- think strategically;
- deciding in complex situations ;
- be a driving force behind proposals in the fields of defence and security.
► Understanding each other to act together
The training provided will also collective experienceThis will enable auditors with a wide range of backgrounds to :
- step outside their sphere of expertise to broaden their viewpoints and question their practices;
- share their knowledge and experience;
- to form a network and a community of commitment acting in the service of the country's strategic interests through its capacity for influence and influence.
Skills certification
The national session of the IHEDN prepares auditors who wish to do so for the skills certification entitled "Mastering defence and security issues for strategic decision-making", registered with the French Ministry of Defence. Specific France Compétences directory under number RS5607 from 24 November 2021.
Skills certification is based on four assessment methods:
- an individual summary ;
- a collective report ;
- an individual recommendation score ;
- a simulation exercise.
Deliverables must be handed in by the deadline indicated at the beginning of the year. It will not be possible to make up or partially validate skills.
Over 2023-2024, 87.7% of the auditors who took part in the certification validated the target competency.
► Satisfaction rate
At the end of each session, auditors are asked to complete a questionnaire assessing the training, covering the general organisation, the lecture-debates, the study missions, the committee work and the innovative teaching exercises. For the 2023-2024 cycle, 92.8 % of auditors felt that the course as a whole met their expectations.
The common core curriculum and its breakdown by major
The national session has two inseparable components:
A COMMON BASE
aimed at forging a common defence culture among auditors from a wide variety of backgrounds;
A MAJOR
chosen from five themes: armaments and the defence economy, economic defence and security, maritime issues and strategies, defence policy, digital sovereignty and cybersecurity.
The Common Learning Baseis spread throughout the year, with the main aim of acquiring the necessary knowledgeand skills and the methods needed to monitor the sessionThe aim is to ensure that we have a clear understanding of our national defence policy in each area.
In addition to the theoretical and cross-disciplinary aspects of the training, the study assignments, both in France and abroad, also contribute to the development of a solid knowledge base. common defence culture backed up by experience in the field.
These times of shared reflection between the national session auditors, as well as participating in joint activitiesThe content of the common base is based on the principles of solidarity, unity and cohesion.
the 5 major themes of the national session
National session candidates opt for at moment from registration for one of the following five majors:
- Armaments and defence economics (AED) ;
- Economic Defence and Security (DSE) ;
- Maritime issues and strategies (ESM) ;
- Defence policy (POLDEF) ;
- Digital Sovereignty & Cybersecurity (SNC).
From these five majors, candidates choose the one that best suits their needs. need for further information which enables them to develop complementary skills in the strategic management of their missions, and in the exercise of their responsibilities.
Applicants from the French overseas departments and territories can enrol in the 'Maritime Challenges and Strategies' major, which has been adapted to enable them to complete the entire course.
The five majors of the national session involve, in the same way as the common core of training, on the one hand a sharing of experience between auditors with varied skills, and on the other, going beyond one's initial sphere of expertise.
Each major has its own specific objectivesdetermined on the basis of expectations of the listeners it brings togetherparticularly in terms of specialisation.
In view of their interdependence, the subjects specific to each major are also marked by their transversality.
The 5 modules of the national session
The national session is divided into modules, each of which includes a section relating to the common foundation and a section specific to each major.
This common structuring of training helps to strengthen the unity of the national session. It also contributes to the necessary sharing of experience and cross-fertilisation of perspectives involved in defence and security issues, which are now more closely intertwined than ever.
THE STRATEGIC CONTEXT
The initial module enables students, after the introductory seminar, to grasp the main facts of the strategic context, to tackle the specific issues of each major and to acquire the foundations of a common method for developing a strategy used throughout the year.
THE PLAYERS AND RESOURCES INVOLVED IN THE STRATEGY
This involves examining the organisation of the State and the respective roles of public and private players, at both national and local level. This module also leads auditors to assess the constraints on our budgetary, human and natural resources, as well as the issue of maintaining skills specific to each field studied.
Deployment of the strategy
This module focuses on the operational dimension of our strategy, whether in terms of intelligence, military operations, weapons operations, action at sea, cyber defence or counter-intelligence. It uses simulation exercises and Serious Games, as well as case studies, to prepare students for decision-making in complex situations.
THE NEW CHALLENGES
The strategic scene is marked by the diversification of actors, forms and fields of conflict, in the digital and information domains, and in exo-atmospheric and maritime spaces. The aim of this module is to assess the relative novelty of these issues and to draw conclusions in terms of sovereignty, defence and capacity for action.
the international challenges .
This module focuses more specifically on our bilateral and multilateral cooperation and the role we intend to play within the UN, the EU and NATO. It is based on missions abroad, the objectives of which are defined according to their interest for each major and the priorities of our diplomacy.
becoming an auditor
Target audience
Managers and future managers aged between 35 and 55 :
- parliamentarians and elected representatives ;
- senior civil servants, senior officers and academics;
- high-level officials from the public and private sectors;
- employees in the voluntary sector, journalists and religious representatives, lawyers, consultants and entrepreneurs.
Application requirements
The course is accessible to people with disabilities, subject to special assistance and within the limits of the requirements for travel (in France and abroad) and teaching activities.
The IHEDN disability correspondent can be contacted by e-mail : Correspondant.Handicap@ihedn.fr
Sign up
No pre-requisites are required, apart from compliance with the following conditions:
- the recruitment campaign for the 2026-2027 session will begin in December 2025 ;
- only complete applications will be examined.
Selection criteria
The main criteria used to select candidates are as follows:
- career path and level of responsibility;
- the wealth of their personal experience;
- commitment during and after the session ;
- Motivated interest in defence and security issues and in the chosen major;
- open-mindedness and ability to integrate ;
- an appetite for collective thinking, dialogue and interaction;
- career prospects ;
- the ability to convey your ideas clearly and convincingly.
Selection procedure
After analysing the applications that meet all the conditions and include all the supporting documents required, individual 30-minute interviews with a panel of judges will take place remotely from the end of February to the beginning of May.
Successful candidates are appointed by order of the Prime Minister during the first ten days of July.
Rates and financing
The national session is eligible for the personal training account (CPF).
- 22 700 € Large companies, mid-sized companies and their subsidiaries, banks and insurance companies, consultancies (turnover > €50m); comparable organisations.
- 13 400 € SMEs, SMIs, VSEs, the professions, self-employed consultancies (turnover < €50m), airports and ports, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, La Banque Postale, SNCF, public industrial and commercial establishments, professional bodies defending private interests, company foundations, NGOs; comparable bodies.
- 6 700 € Elected representatives, public employees in the three civil service sectors, public establishments other than EPICs (EPAs, EPSCPs, EPSTs), military personnel, academics and higher education, journalists, charitable foundations and comparable bodies.
- 3 400 € : trade union representatives, religious representatives, employees of sports, social, cultural and humanitarian associations; comparable bodies.
Registration fees are payable in full before the start of the session in September 2025.
training assessment
All participants in the national session will be required to complete the following tasks:
- a committee report ;
- a summary ;
- a recommendation;
- a simulation exercise.
Auditor status will be awarded on the basis of the following criteria:
- attendance ;
- participation in committee work ;
- handing in the work, within the deadlines indicated and in compliance with the educational frameworks for the four assignments above.
The certificate of competence will be awarded on the basis of an assessment of the criteria defined in the the skills and assessment framework submitted to France Compétencesof the following works:
- the committee report ;
- the summary ;
- the recommendation note ;
- the simulation exercise.
contact
If you have any questions about the national session, please contact :
The collection of applications for the 2025-2026 national session closed on 25 March. The recruitment campaign for the 2026-2027 session will begin in December 2025.
Last modified on :
