EF Educational Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: EF Educational Tours
Town/city: Rome
Country: Italië
Website: http://www.eftours.com/

Name of student: Maaike Theuws

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2015-2016

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Sending out pre-tour information to tour directors.
Liaising with operational team based in Switzerland to help with operational issues.
Dealing with on-tour emergencies.
Payment of extra expenses.
Distributing and managing Paris metro tix.
Pulling out reports and sending to tour directors.
Helping with selections and trainings from tour directors.

Target group of the organization: American and Canadian high school students
Company culture: Informal
Number of employees: 3-7
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 in Rome
Brief description of your daily activities: Updating information tour directors.
Sending out PTC’s and TDI’s.
Cloning contracts.
Making appointments performance reviews.
Taking care of criminal background checks.
Counting metro tickets, process information in Excel.
Call applicants and invite them for selection day.
Process information of travel expenses post season meeting in Excel.
Helping with the selection and training days.
Analyse information applicants through Excel.
Brief description of your company assignment: During my placement I have focused on the process of selecting and training of new tour directors. I followed the proceedings of the selecting and training of new tour directors. Also investigated what the changes are of the tourist business and what the wishes and needs are of existing and potential new customers. Eventually I gave recommendations about how to improve the process according to the new needs and requests of the customers.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: You will have two supervisors (the regional managers of the office). You are at the office with the regional managers and the crew of Go Ahead tours.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Work independently, sociable, flexible, stress-proof, enthusiastic
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, especially Excel
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? By myself through the website easystanza.it where you can post an advert and people are replying to your advert
How did you go to work every day? By foot or public transportation

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? Yes
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? If it is not too busy at the office you can take Italian classes at EF.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 250
Accommodation (monthly): € 650
Local transport (monthly): € 35
General costs of living (monthly): € 400
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Reimbursement of flight ticket, monthly public transportation card (35 euro), 5 euro per day lunch money.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes, the working atmosphere here is different compared with the working atmosphere in the Netherlands. There is less pressure.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 131104@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: I would recommend not to rent a room in the neighborhood San Lorenzo. It is cheap but not really safe and very ugly. You can not really rely on the public transportation in Rome, so try to find a place that’s not too far from your internship. You can visit a lot of places, but take into account that a lot of places are free to visit the first or last sunday of the month. In this way you can safe money.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There is enough to do in Rome after a working day or in the weekend. Trastevere and Campo di Fiori are two lovely neighborhoods with lots of bars and restaurants. Try the typical Italian aperitivo, it’s delicious! It is also very easy to visit the beach, it takes you 35-70 minutes by train.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link