Toulouse Métropole

Placement organization

Name of organization: Toulouse Métropole
Town/city: Toulouse
Country: Frankrijk
Website: https://www.toulouse-metropole.fr/

Student

Name of student: Chloé Ourties

Specialist area: Tourism Management (EN)
Placement period: 2018-2019

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Local Authority
Organization’s activities: Toulouse Métropole is a French local authority founded in 2015, which brings together 37 municipalities and 746 919 inhabitants that get together in a space of solidarity to develop and conduct a joint spatial planning project. It aims at promoting the city of Toulouse as a touristic destination, while respecting the needs and wishes of its inhabitants. It is also meant to guarantee:
• A better control and anticipation of the territory’s strong demographic growth
• The establishment of an appropriate and equitable public transport offer
• The recovering of financial margins
• The rationalising and optimizing of the access to public services
• The development of a more integrated governance and an arbitration structure
• And ensure consistency between municipal and metropolitan actions.
Target group of the organization: European countries
Company culture: The beliefs of the company are mainly the focus on the wishes and desires of its local community, in line with a smart and sustainable urban development.

The President of this administrative structure is Mr. Jean-Luc Moudenc, the mayor of the city of Toulouse. It is managed by 134 delegates of the Metropolitan Council. They meet at least once every quarter to review and adopt all the decisions submitted to it.
The local authority is divided in many different poles, and each one is being ruled by the corresponding elected representative of that particular field of action.

Concerning the Europe department which is more tourism-related, the different Project Managers are mainly answering calls for European projects. They also aim at raising awareness of European opportunities among services; and serve as a contact point for European networks (“Europe Urbain” Network, EUROCITIES, France Urbaine, etc.).
Moreover, the Europe department is working in the same open space as the International Relations department, which facilitates the exchanges and communication between services, that are bound by their cooperation with the outside world. That creates a nice working atmosphere with a good team cohesion and dedicated people.
Number of employees: 7,500
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

I am working in the Europe department which is mostly in charge of international exchanges and European projects. However, a consistent part of their work is organizing many events in Toulouse and its surrounding area that can be leisure (cultural, musical, arts, educational, etc.) or business events, and in all kinds of places.

Brief description of your daily activities: I mainly took part of the organization and the running of the “Europe Week” which is a combination of different cultural events celebrating every year the creation of the European Union. It included:
• The participation in preparatory meetings with institutional and associative partners
• The preparation of the programme for schools and public events
• The material and logistical organisation of the event
• The preparation of the programme and communication
• The quantitative and qualitative evaluation
• The search for European funding
• Help for the realisation of notes and translations

I also helped organising businesses events like the EUROCITIES meeting, the URBACT meeting or the 11th Franco-Vietnamese meeting. Furthermore, I helped my company supervisor with the promotion and selection of students and vacancies for the Summer job Erasmus+ programme.
Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment is focusing on two main questions:
• How can Toulouse Métropole reach a wider range of people from the area and beyond regarding the promotion of its Europe Week event?
• How can the internal as well as external communication can be improved at Toulouse Métropole, and thereafter applied to the Europe Week’s promotional plan?
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My company supervisor is a really passionated person and taught me all the different aspects of his work, which is very varied. He welcomed me and integrated me nicely in the working team, and there was a really good atmosphere for my whole placement period.
He made me want to keep contact with the organisation and maybe work there in the future!

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independant, eager to learn, sociable, flexible
Additional company requirements for this placement? Writing skills
English: Advanced
French: Advanced

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Myself (family house)
How did you go to work every day? Car / metro

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents:
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance?

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? If you are not French native, it might be better

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 200€
Accommodation (monthly): € 0€
Local transport (monthly): € 10€ for the metro
General costs of living (monthly): € 300€
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? • Financial compensation of half of the price of “restaurant tickets” that are worth 7.40€ (so 3.20€ per working day)
• Reimbursement of transport costs (metro)

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I am native from France so I did not really need to adapt as I came back to my home town.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? No

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: chloe.ourties@gmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: You need to keep a positive and open-minded attitude, and to be ready to overcome any challenging situation as event management is every day different!
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: • The Place du Capitole
• The Basilique Saint-Sernin
• The Pont Neuf
• The Cité de l’Espace
• The Muséum of Toulouse
• The Japanese garden
• The Church of the Jacobins
• Discovering by walk, by bike or by boat the Canal du Midi
• Visiting the Airbus industries

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