mboRijnland will start PLAZA, its own learning company, in the city center of Zoetermeer on November 1. PLAZA is the place where education and practice come together. PLAZA starts with a Gift Store, on the edge of the city park. This store will be run entirely by students.

For years, mboRijnland has had a thriving gift store in Leidschenhage shopping center in Leidschendam. Now we are starting an even more extensive entrepreneurial concept in the heart of the shopping area of Zoetermeer. Here students will have the opportunity to put the knowledge they have gained during their lessons into practice.

PLAZA consists of three retail spaces, which together form a kind of boulevard along the city park. The first space is to be used as a gift shop. Economics students will run this store. A practical trainer and the teachers of mboRijnland will guide the students. According to initiator and project leader André Leeflang, the idea is that the students will experience at first hand what it is like to be a real entrepreneur in the gift shop. "It is really the intention that they can run the store cost-effectively, just as is currently the case in Leidschendam. They experience the pressures that real entrepreneurs also go through on a daily basis." After the Gift Store opens, the project group will investigate what activities we can offer in the other two retail spaces.

Sustainable furnishing together with TRIBOO

Currently, the project group is developing the interior of the Gift Store, together with engineering students in Gouda. We are working together with Triboo, a company that designs circular furniture and store fittings in a sustainable way, completely CO2 neutral. The project group aims to furnish the store entirely energy-neutral. This includes circular furniture made from waste, cellulose, CDs and broken vacuum cleaners and refrigerators. Triboo is willing to support mboRijnland with this. They are also willing to help mboRijnland with the use of energy neutral insulation material. A wonderful way to contribute to reducing the waste mountain and realizing a sustainable and circular economy.