Business Centre Client Stories: Alliance Française de Leeds

Let’s start by telling us about yourself

My name is Edwina Zeganadin, I’m the part-time director of the Alliance Française de Leeds.

I started as a French teacher, and then I travelled everywhere around the world to teach French.

I started with English-speaking countries. I worked as a language assistant in Dublin, Ireland, and then I spent a year in the United States, in a Virginian university. Then I was in Sydney, Australia for six months. After getting my degree, I went to Macau, in China where I spent four years, and then I was in Mongolia for two and a half years and then in Georgia for another two and a half years.

And then I came here in 2019, to work for Alliance Française de Leeds.

Can you tell us more about Alliance Française de Leeds?

Alliance Française is a not-for-profit French language and cultural organisation. We’re linked to the French minister of Foreign Affairs and work with them, but we’re self-sufficient.

We're part of a national and international network. We currently have 11 centres in the UK, but worldwide there are around 800.
The Alliance Française de Leeds is quite recent. It opened in 2015.

How did you first hear about the Business Centre?

Whilst working in my morning job, a colleague mentioned Leeds Beckett had office spaces available in the city. So, I searched “Business Centre for Leeds Beckett” on the internet, and sent an email.

From then on, it went very fast. They said they had two empty offices, and that I could visit to see them, so I did.

And in November 2021, we signed a contract with the Business Centre.

How has the Business Centre helped your business?

Firstly, I would say that the staff, Kulshaan and Janet, are very accessible and very helpful. They’re also very open. The business centre used to close at 7pm, but after people commented that it would be nice to have the times expanded, it was changed. Now it’s open until 9pm, and we can access it on the weekends as well if necessary.

We don't have a big budget, so it’s great that the facilities are within our budget. It came fully furnished, and there aren’t many additional fees like installing the internet. We even use university rooms to hold exams in for free. We wouldn’t have been able to hold the exams otherwise, as we only just started being the exam centre for the international exams last year.

In our previous set-up, we weren’t provided with an office space, it was all virtual, and I was doing all the administrative work from home. So, it's been nice to have an office space here, where we can store all the material and administrative paperwork and things like that, and we can also use it as a classroom for smaller groups. We teach until 8.30pm, so the fact that the centre is open until 9pm is great.

It’s very well-located too. It’s close to shops, so when we need some paper or stationary, I’m back in ten minutes, and it’s decently close to the train station and bus routes. It’s nice and quiet, though - people are always surprised by that. The square outside is very peaceful, because it’s far from roads and cars, so if you want to have lunch or take a break, you don’t need to go very far.

Would you recommend the Business Centre to other businesses?

Yes, definitely - especially if you’re just starting or have a small budget. I did check other places before I thought about the University Business Centre, and they were much more expensive - and you would have additional fees as well, like installing the internet and things like that.

So, I would definitely recommend it.

If you could sum up your experience with the Business Centre in a sentence, what would you say?

That it was a very good choice to come here, and I definitely don’t regret it.