Fashion, beauty, cooking… the boxes concept is flying high!
JobBox & Co is a luxembourgish startup offering educational entertainment boxes designed for kids to discover jobs. We met with Camille Decoster and Constance Beauchesne, the co-founders who, after 2 years of hard work, invite us to discover their universe.
Tell us about JobBox.
Constance : JobBox started as an idea between myself and Camille. We are friends who are passionate about board games in a family setting, and we were both at turning points in our professional lives – I was working in a bank, and Camille was immersed in culture and her children. We realised that children are often asked what they want to do when they grow up, but that no one ever informs them about the plethora of professions that are open to them. The best way to present these jobs in an entertaining manner, we thought, would be to enable the professionals to do the talking.
Camille: That’s when we decided that we have to go and meet these professionals… We create the boxes based on these interviews. Each box depicts the daily life of a particular job through fun anecdotes, a “living life as a pro” poster and a creative guide.
What was the first interview like?
Camille: We met up with Thomas Murer for the content of the first box. Thomas was a finalist in Top Chef last year: he radiates passion for his job, which showed in the way he enjoyed talking about it and sharing his knowledge.
Constance: We wanted to create a product that would convey this passion without simplifying the message to the point of being naïve. In fact, all the professionals that we interviewed spelled it out: hard work is required for every job.
Who do your boxes target?
Constance: The boxes are meant for children between the ages of 8 and 13 years – the content has been made for children who already know how to read.
The boxes are available to families, via our website or in several shops in Luxembourg. They can be bought individually or as a subscription (a new box is released every term). We also offer the boxes to companies that wish to promote their professions. Finally, we are talking to large, specialised chains to get them to agree to sell our boxes in their shops.
You participated in 1,2,3 Go Social – now known as Impuls: how was the experience?
Camille: We learned a lot from it, the training sessions were of a very high quality. Participating also helped us write our business plan, which we would not have been able to do as successfully without proper support. Our coaches really helped us.
Constance: Even the meetings with other project holders were extremely beneficial, and we were fortunate to have a nice group. In fact, we still keep in touch and support each other. For us, only good things have come from participating! It really propelled us forward.
How is JobBox a social enterprise?
Constance: We are targeting to social aspects with JobBox: the obvious one is the educational aspect, the playful approach to career guidance. Inspiring children to discover a multitude of jobs can also help motivate to them at school by giving them a long-term goal to work towards.
Camille: Besides, we are testing an educational project with a school: a class of schoolchildren get to vote on which job they are most interested in, and we organise meetings between them and professionals in that job. The goal is to get the children and the professionals to make something together at the end of the year.
Constance: The other social aspect, which may be less obvious but just as important, is related to logistics: as soon as we reach critical mass, we will be outsourcing the excess to sheltered workshops or reintegration centres. This prospect is really important to us, and we are already discussing the possibilities.
Inspiring children to discover a multitude of jobs can also help motivate to them at school by giving them a long-term goal to work towards.
What are your next steps?
Constance: Our immediate next step is to ramp up the distribution of the boxes that have already been produced – through distributors of educational products, museum shops, concept stores, etc.
Afterwards, we’d like to move on to translating the boxes, which to present are only in French. We are already working on Luxembourgish, and are considering English and German as well.
And obviously, let’s not forget the jobs that will be featured in future boxes! Our resources are limited, so we are looking for partners or investors to help us with this aspect.
Summarise your startup in a tweet:
Camille & Constance: “JobBox, jobs to be shared!”
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