Experience Scotland

Placement organization

Name of organization: Experience Scotland
Town/city: Penicuik
Country: Groot-Brittannië
Website: http://www.experiencescotland.co.uk

Student

Name of student: Tessa Jonker

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Destination Management Company
Organization’s activities: Experience Scotland specializes in the co-ordination of all forms of inbound travel, from incentives, conferences, product launches to looking after the leisure market with group programmes and programmes for individuals. Everything, besides the travel to Scotland, is/can be arranged by Experience Scotland. This can include accommodation, transportation, guides, visits etc. Tailor made packages are put together for all clients.
Target group of the organization: Mostly Belgian/French tourists coming to Scotland. However, we deal with all sorts of Nationalities. Furthermore, as people nowadays can book their trips easily via the internet themselves, we deal mostly with the high-end markets, who can afford to pay a bit extra for the services we provide.
Company culture: Informal. No formal clothing required. All employees are easily approachable.
Number of employees: 4
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes, definitely

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? It is a small company of only a few employees, so I dealt with all of them. There is no real division in departments, but the employees all specialize on some area. I worked with one of my colleagues a lot on conferences and incentive groups, and then also a few weeks more with my other colleague on leisure groups and individuals.
Brief description of your daily activities: My daily activities consisted mostly of putting together itinerary for clients. These could be very extensive programmes of trips throughout Scotland, including the arrangements of all activities that they would be doing during their stay, restaurant bookings, car rentals etc.
Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment was to ‘create, sell and follow-up a booking’, which was actually what I did as a daily activity. However, my company supervisor had asked me to elaborate and explain all aspects involved with this, so to pick one request and explain all problems encountered, difficulties, etc.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Perfect.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Flexible, team worker, organized
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office (Excell, Word, Powerpoint)
English: Intermediate
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Other languages are a plus, but not required

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? I found my accommodation myself via the internet
How did you go to work every day? By foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents:
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance?

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? Not necesarry, as long as you are able to write/speak English on a reasonable level

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 150
Accommodation (monthly): € 500
Local transport (monthly): € 30
General costs of living (monthly): € 200
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? I got a compensation of £250 per month

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I didn’t really prepare for it. Scotland is of course different as opposed to the Netherlands, but it is not a major culture shock. I found that Scots are generally very friendly, and proud of their culture. You will soon learn about this when going here.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Helpful people, so more motivation

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: tessa_jonker_93@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Just contact me if you have any further questions.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: In Penicuik itself there is not much to do, but Edinburgh is a GREAT city.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link