Marina Queiros

Educap City is a point-to-point challenge aiming to show young people the importance of consideration for others, inquisitiveness, teamwork and citizenship.

Each year, dozens of towns and cities choose Educap City to help them organise a challenge day to get local pupils out and about, meeting local personalities. To win, they have to work as a team and be fast, enthusiastic and inquisitive. 

This unique initiative is backed by Olympic wheelchair rugby champion Ryadh Sallem and aims to show young people the value of inclusion and how they can push back their limits.

As part of our apprenticeships, Océane and I/Marina and I regularly work together on a range of projects. We’re creative and we complement each other well. That’s why we make such a good team 😉 

Recently, we were tasked with working together on a new project, Educap City, and here’s how each of us contributed.

I was asked to look after all Axereal’s event management for this project. That involved designing our stand from scratch. I had to think about the message we wanted each child to take away with them when they visited our stand. 

We started with the questions and answers that they would be asked, and also everything we would need for the stand (including clues to provide information for the children and help them with their challenges). 

We prepared things like crops, food products, maps and a visual for a pop-up stand (see opposite).

This was the first time we had been involved in Educap City and both the local stage and the final went very well for us. Our stand was a hit with the children and the organisers alike. We’re looking forward to taking part again in the future!

I’ve been an apprentice in the Human Relations division for almost two years now, so I’ve developed a few daily routines.

I start my working day at around 8:45. When I get to the company’s head office in Olivet, I go around the offices in the Human Resources department to say hello to my co-workers.

Back at my desk, I switch on my laptop and start by checking my emails and Teams messages. Next, I list the priorities among the day’s tasks and draw up a schedule to plan out my day and organise my workload. The issues are very wide-ranging, from retirement and the end of contracts to disability and unfitness for work, preparations for the necessary commission meetings, and so on. Most of our work starts with an assignment set by an HR Portfolio Manager, whom we liaise with on a daily basis.
For every issue I handle, I have to fill in a progress sheet, as do my colleagues. We use this sheet to list all our ongoing issues and get a real-time view of our progress, but also to ensure that the workload is evenly distributed between everyone on the team.

Depending on the day and what has been organised, I take part in meetings – generally, I attend at least one meeting a day. For example, every Wednesday morning we have a team meeting with our line manager to discuss any important issues we need to handle in the coming days. We talk about the key issues we’re facing and we organise and divide up the workload. We also take part in various commission meetings, plus the Social and Economic Committee meetings at least once a month.

Lunch break is at around midday. With my co-workers we usually go to the shared company cafeteria just a short walk from the Axereal head office. Except in summer, when we often have a picnic to spend some relaxed time together.

We go back to work at about 1:15 pm. The afternoon routine is similar to the morning. In the Human Relations division, we deal with a wide range of issues, so we always find our work fulfilling. Every day is different, it’s never the same.

The day normally finishes at around 5:30 pm.

I was given the opportunity to be part of the team organising Axereal’s participation in the 60th Paris International Agricultural Show. It was a great experience and I learned so much, especially about event management.

I worked on many different aspects of the project, helping to organise the schedule, competitions, events and more.

And as well as being involved in organising the events at the show, I got to take part too!

> Quiz on regenerative agriculture (Intercéréales stand)

> Day visit for Starting Block participants

> Treblec promotion organised jointly with Axiane

This was my first Paris International Agricultural Show, and also my first real experience of event management. It’s an area I’m very interested in, and I’d like to learn more. I loved working both on the organisational side (within the cooperative) and on the hosting. It was great to see so many people at the show.

I’m already looking forward to going back next year!  

When I tell someone I work in communications, they’ll sometimes say, 
“So your job is to make TikTok videos?”
I answer laughingly, “Well, not exactly – but I do sometimes Tweet, or should I say post on X!”

That’s what made me think that my student blog would be an ideal opportunity to tell you a bit more about what I do day to day, and show that working in communications is not just about social media!

As a degree apprentice with the group, I work on both internal and external communications. 

•    I post on the group’s social media channels (YouTube, TikTok and X), but that’s only part of my job. I also write and publish articles on the Axereal intranet and on the axereal.com website. 
Working with my supervisor, I lead editorial board meetings where we coordinate the content published on our communications channels.

•    And I head up the student blogs project for Discover, our student community (this is one of the blogs from the project!). I contact the “Discoverers” who are interested in joining the team of bloggers and help them with the process of writing their articles, from the initial idea through to posting.

•    I get the opportunity to work with colleagues in Eastern Europe (Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria) on a daily basis, which is great. I support them with updating their various websites. It’s very rewarding being in contact with colleagues from different cultures, and I love it! I sometimes get the opportunity to practice my English too.

Something else I really enjoy is writing newsletters, for both group staff and the Central Europe teams. 

I also look after the SEO monitoring for our grain elevators and websites on Google.
When I get the opportunity, I do some graphic design work to improve my Adobe skills.
And lastly, I’m responsible for coordinating the group’s campaigns for the 2024 International Agricultural Show.

So all in all, my role in the Axereal communications team keeps me busy! There’s never a dull moment and I’m learning so much :)
 

On 6 October, I had the opportunity to take part in the second Discover induction day held at the Château de La Ferté Saint Aubin. The event is organised to give Axereal students, degree apprentices, interns, VIE volunteers and Erasmus students the chance to meet new people in the company.

We started the day with a plenary session which included a presentation of Axereal and its activities and then turned the spotlight on the Discover community. Over the morning, we were able to find out more about how a cooperative works, the group’s strategy and the main factors that define Axereal’s objectives. The aim was to ensure that the students’ work is well aligned with the group’s direction. I found out more about the Discover community and I saw that most Axereal students get on very well, taking part in an array of activities and events together. I thought it was great! What better way to get to know one another than attending events held by our company?

In the afternoon, we took part in a big Escape Game in groups made up of students from different Axereal departments and divisions. It was a complex activity that called on all our creativity, logical thinking and our ability to adapt to different situations. We also had to draw on our team spirit to solve the puzzle! At least, that was the aim... but the most important thing was taking part!

I’ll take away some great memories from this first Discover event and I’m already looking forward to the next ones.