EF Educational Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: EF Educational Tours
Town/city: London
Country: United Kingdom
Website: http://www.eftours.com

Student

Name of student: Lars Durlinger

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour Operator
Organization’s activities: Striving to break down the barriers of language, culture and geography that divide us, the globally operating group offers programmes for all ages, from language learning and cultural exchange programmes to academic and university preparation programmes.
Target group of the organization: students
Company culture: Young, fresh, both formal & informal. Everything is regulated quite strictly when it comes to work, but the atmosphere in the office is good with a lot of very nice Tour Directors walking in and out.
Number of employees: 6 in my office, thousands worldwide
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Regional office, assisting the Tour Directors in their preparation for their trip
Brief description of your daily activities: -Sending out PTC (Pre-Tour Contacts) and TDI’s (Tour Director Itinerary’s) to Tour Directors, these contain valuable information for the Tour Directors regarding their upcoming trip.
-Allocating & helping out Tour Directors with their tablet they get from the office which contains an EF app.
-Processing debriefings (paperwork of Tour Directors)
-Assisting Tour Directors in the office by email but also in the office
-A lot of other things that come on your path.. it’s never the same, which makes it enjoyable.
Brief description of your company assignment: Creating a report which contains suggestions, feedback from various groups in EF and more information for the tablet & EF App upon what can be improved for next year, possibly help out with the execution of these idea’s if considered valuable in case they need information from me.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I can always ask questions, they always help you out. Lovely colleagues (and many will be in here next year as well)

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? flexible!! Also planning (prioritizing tasks) and preferably team player and sociable
Additional company requirements for this placement? Very basic Excel, English writing (emails)
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Train

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? with help from the company
How did you go to work every day? underground, metro

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

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

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? Depends how confident you are about your English, you will encounter a lot of different accents from all over the world.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € n/a
Accommodation (monthly): € 130
Local transport (monthly): € 170 euro as of 9th of April, EF paid for this
General costs of living (monthly): € n/a
Costs of visa: € n/a
Costs of work permit: € n/a
What did the company pay for/to you? Transport and Lunch. For lunch you get 8 pounds per day no matter what you get. If you pay more it’s your own cost, if you pay less you can keep the rest.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
CCS (Cross Cultural Studies) prepares you for this. No other special preparation except for some reading about UK/London
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? no

Future students on placement

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

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Arrange your placement & place to live & if needed, vaccinations and paperwork ASAP, saves trouble.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The placement is on Oxford Street, one of the busiest streets of London.
A-Location

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link