​100 young people think about the city of tomorrow with ENGIE

Hi Camille, can tell us about the CNJE?

The National Confederation of Junior Enterprises is an organization that has existed for almost 50 years. Its goal is to develop and provide support for junior companies in France.

With branches in specialized schools and universities, Junior-Enterprises function as real companies or consulting firms. Students get paid to help professionals develop their business: conducting market research, marketing, creating websites, engineering, human resources, etc. They provide both educational tools and paths to professional integration for students.

Today there are 175 junior companies in France with 19,000 student members. They mostly come from engineering schools, but also from business schools, universities, architecture schools, etc. We are open to any and all types of skills.

What do you get from your partnership with ENGIE?

ENGIE became one of our premium sponsors last November during our National Winter Congress. The partnership helps us communicate with our members about careers within the Group and its specific requests, and lets them meet experts from the Group.

ENGIE also provides pro bono advice and training for our Junior Entrepreneurs, offering debates and workshops, most recently about women leaders or managing industrial projects.

It’s a relatively new partnership but also a very active one, which you’ll see in the workshop that ENGIE has invited us to on June 7th.

Tell us about the "100 young people for the city of tomorrow" event.

It’s a half-day workshop. There will be an opening speech by Brigitte Romagné, the creator of the "Routes de l’innovation" and an expert on creativity and innovation.

ENGIE has invited 50 Junior Entrepreneurs as well as other students and entrepreneurs to think about how to "help us to invent the city of tomorrow."

The goal is for there to be productive encounters between the Junior Entrepreneurs, YPN (Young Pro Network, ENGIE’s young talent network), and representatives of the ENGIE brand. Hopefully this will lead to tangible projects and new business ideas.

What does this special relationship with ENGIE mean to you?

ENGIE is our partner in innovation, and innovation is a core value for our association. In the workshop part of the event on June 7th, our Junior Entrepreneurs will work innovation and the role of energy in the near future.

It is important for us to think about how we want to move around, inhabit, and live together in the city of the future.

For our Junior Entrepreneurs this is also an opportunity to step back and reflect on these social issues. This exercise will also help them develop the skills that will positively influence how they respond to requests from ENGIE or other clients and integrate these issues into their projects.

One example of this is the winner of the Engineer 2016 label, which the junior company ETIC INSA created within INSA. It recently participated in a project about optimizing energy use in the Lyon tramway as part of the Lyon 2020 project. This is a concrete example of successful collaboration between Junior Entreprises and the business world and local authorities.

Do you have other projects with ENGIE?

Yes of course. One is the concept developed with ENGIE and AEF about the university campus of the future, which a number of our Junior-Entrepreneurs are currently involved in.