Business is booming for a workforce development agency

"I learned about this local workforce development agency in connection with a tender invitation at Saint-Pons de Thomières. It involved creating a local wood burning heating network. I was impressed by the quality of their work in refurbishing buildings, as well as their social role in the area of workforce development."

Christian Viala

In the Herault department, the outreach agency SIB Marbre is concerned with the integration of persons in the district struggling to find jobs on the "conventional" job market. It is accordingly developing an economic activity in the building field. SIB Marbre is thus building stone walls or refurbishing homes and other buildings with old stones for private individuals and municipalities. Today, seven building workers are employed under integration contracts for a maximum period of two years, with the approval of the ANPE, the French National Employment Administration. As to their predecessors, 60% of them have already found a stable job on completion of their contract.

Better welcome for employees

To develop further and to propose a broader range of jobs to persons in difficulty, SIB Marbre wants to start an additional open space maintenance activity. It has accordingly turned to the Veolia Foundation, after having also approached the General Council: the agency urgently needs to convert its premises to organize this new activity optimally.

The grant will enable it to build a dressing room with a shower and to create a space to store the various tools. Besides, thanks to its own funds, it will acquire the latest office automation equipment and another vehicle to transport its employees to the various construction sites. Better equipped, it can thus respond to steadily growing demand (protection against floods and forest fires) from private individuals, and also from the municipalities in the district, as well as the adjacent Aude and Tarn districts.