In France, a business centre known as ‘L’Atelier’ has been set up in south-east Île-de-France, to offer development and entrepreneurship spaces to young and older people presenting dynamic projects for the region.
- 15 January 2020
These furnished and equipped offices, ‘ L’Atelier ’ (‘The Workshop’), are designed to foster creation and employment in the city’s priority neighbourhoods, and to facilitate access to entrepreneurship for young people and job-seekers, by providing them with high-quality, responsive, personalised support.
By creating ‘L’Atelier’, the Melun-Val-de-Seine agglomeration community is offering a site to encourage entrepreneurship. The business centre is located on two sites in Melun and Dammarie-Les-Lys. The aim is to boost economic activity in these priority neighbourhoods, by helping young entrepreneurs to enter the market, through the provision of premises offering very favourable conditions.
A smooth transition into entrepreneurial culture.
By offering premises, the project seeks to encourage outside businesses to move in, and to awaken the entrepreneurial spirit of job seekers, non-workers and young people. Thanks to tailored support for project initiators and business owners, ‘L’Atelier’ is therefore contributing to development in the region.
On site, a roll-up lists the coaching initiatives provided by ‘L’Atelier’. These actions take into account the careers of the project initiators and how far advanced their projects are. The aim is to ensure a smooth transition into entrepreneurial culture, while promoting synergy between business owners and encouraging vocations among young people.
Communication and job creation.
To succeed, this project needed all the dynamism of the Melun-Val-de-Seine agglomeration community, combined with strong political drive. The first step was to fit out the two sites by buying equipment and furniture. The second step involved communications work to give ‘L’Atelier’ a visual identity. This included creating a logo. Signage also increases the visibility of European aid, with micro-perforated posters in the windows. Finally, billboards outside each site indicate the name of the project and that of its funders.
The sites are both managed by BTMI Conseils. The creation of ‘L’Atelier’ itself has already generated 42 jobs. The premises on the two sites are identical, so that entrepreneurs can access the same arrangement in terms of furniture and fixtures in Melun and Dammarie-Les-Lys. This twinning contributes to the efficacy of the project, by duplicating the same initiative in two areas, which benefit from increased dynamism thanks to these new hubs of entrepreneurship.
Total investment and European funding
Total investment for the project ‘A business centre in priority neighbourhoods – rehabilitation’ is EUR 45 835; the European Regional Development Fund contribution is EUR 22 917 through the ‘Île-de-France and Seine Basin’ cooperation programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority of ‘Social inclusion, employment, education and training’.