Retrain at Institut Lyfe Executive Education and give your career new meaning
Institut LyfeExecutive Education
What if changing careers wasn’t just about changing jobs, but about changing one’s perspective on work? Against a backdrop where 18% of the working population in France have prepared for a career change by 2025, and around 29% are planning to do so within the next two to five years (source: information report, National Assembly, July 2025), career change is now emerging as a response to a need for coherence and alignment between who we are and what we do.
Changing careers: when passion and emotion become a life’s work
At Institut Lyfe Executive Education, every year we meet men and women who arrive with the same question, sometimes spoken aloud, sometimes just whispered: “What do I really want to devote my energy to? How can I turn my passion into my purpose? ”
Cuisine & Horizon started out as just a hobby course and has become an entrepreneurial training programme. I’ve always loved cooking; the idea of changing careers one day has always been on my mind.
Bruno Poncet, founder of Bru Charcuterie
In a world seeking guidance and human connection, careers in hospitality, gastronomy, the culinary arts and service are once again taking centre stage. Not as ‘dead-end jobs’, but as professions of purpose, connection, knowledge-sharing and human commitment.
Career change: a deeply human choice
Choosing to change careers often means responding to a deep-seated need to:
- Rediscover a sense of purpose,
- Work in a profession where you can immediately see the impact of your work,
- Make room again for emotions, community and physical action,
- Build connections, welcome others, support them, offer moments of well-being, share and bring joy
This human connection is often at the heart of a career change: the trades of cooking, baking and pastry-making are so unique and valuable that they reconnect people with what truly matters. They engage the body as much as the mind; they demand rigour and high standards, but also creativity and the ability to work with others. In return, they offer immediate and lasting satisfaction: that of having contributed to someone else’s happiness.
Retraining at the Institut Lyfe Executive Education
Since 1990, Institut Lyfe (formerly the Institut Paul Bocuse) has been providing training in the hospitality and gastronomy sectors to the highest standards. But training these professionals is about more than just imparting technical skills: our continuing professional development centre, the Institut Lyfe Executive Education, also supports these journeys of transformation.
Our career change programmes in cooking, pastry, baking or entrepreneurship, lasting between 10 and 16 weeks are aimed at a wide range of profiles: executives seeking a new sense of purpose, those with an entrepreneurial project (opening a restaurant or a guesthouse), or professionals in transition… They all share the same ambition: to give their career a new direction.
A practical, real-world approach to learning that equips you with the operational and managerial skills you need
What truly sets our professional retraining courses apart is our belief that you learn these trades by experiencing them first-hand and by acquiring the management skills necessary to pursue your career goals: leading teams, understanding the economic, regulatory and hygiene challenges of running a restaurant, promoting your offering, and so on. Because the professions of tomorrow are no longer merely technical: they are relational, managerial and meaningful.
From the moment they begin their training, learners develop their skills in our exceptional practical facilities, which inspire and elevate, at the heart of the Institut Lyfe campus in Écully, just outside Lyon:
- Numerous training restaurants, including one with a Michelin star
- Culinary laboratories equipped with state-of-the-art equipment
- A 1,000 m² pastry academy
- Spaces dedicated to wine service, tea and front-of-house service
All our students are mentored by renowned chefs, trainers and experts, such as Xavier Sacriste, the 2024 World Bakery Champion, in conditions that closely mirror real-world scenarios.
Training at the Institut Lyfe campus, in the heart of a unique environment steeped in the legacy of our co-founder Paul Bocuse, also means giving yourself the freedom to strive for excellence, especially when changing career paths.
Building a career path that suits you
At Institut Lyfe Executive Education, we believe that a successful career change should not mean giving up on your current path, but rather a fresh start: changing careers can be a courageous, life-changing and deeply positive step, provided you receive the right support and training. Our teams are on hand throughout your journey to support you.
Examples of people who have successfully changed careers and found fulfilment
Changing career paths, daring to start afresh and turning a passion into a professional venture: these career change stories illustrate the diversity of people who are now choosing to reinvent themselves in the catering industry.
- Lucie, a former geologist, completed the Starting-up & Managing Your Own Restaurant programme before opening Les Souris Dansent, a bar-restaurant in the Croix-Rousse district of Lyon.
- From the police force to the restaurant industry, sometimes it takes just a few decisive steps. This is the story of Émilie, who joined the Cuisine & Horizon retraining course before founding L’Emile, her establishment in Perpignan.
- Finally, Sofiane, a former lawyer, also chose to change direction by joining the Starting-up & Managing Your Own Restaurant programme, with the ambition of launching Arcanes, a bistronomic restaurant serving world cuisine in Lyon.
If you are considering a career change, this is a true life transformation. You will face intense emotions: excitement, doubts, questions and a deep sense of commitment. But you will build a professional future that is both fulfilling and true to who you are.