Explorica

Placement organization

Name of organization: Explorica
Town/city: London
Country: Groot-Brittannië
Website: http://www.explorica.com

Student

Name of student: Dieke Dijkstra

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2015-2016

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: tour operator
Organization’s activities: Organizing educational tours for American and Canadian students
Target group of the organization: Canadian and American students
Company culture: The company culture is informal. You can ask everything and there are no stupid questions. The office in London is very multi-cultural because the employees are French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, etc.
Everyone is very approachable and they will see you as their colleague if you work hard. I felt very welcome and appreciated.
Number of employees: 12
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Tour Director Department
Brief description of your daily activities: Collecting Tour Director documents, recruiting new Tour Directors, searching for new suppliers for materials and ordering materials, arranging the Tour Director Conference (meeting room, activities, restaurant), updating files about tour information, special requests for Tour Directors, job ads for Tour Directors. The tasks are very various and you get your own projects so you don’t have to ask every day what you can do.

Brief description of your company assignment: New developments in social media recruitment
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervision was great. I had two supervisors and they were very helpful and friendly.
Every Wednesday I had my study day and that was great because I could do a lot of school work on that day and I had free weekends because of that.

Requirements for students on placement

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

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? former employee at Explorica offered her room
How did you go to work every day? by foot (ten minutes)

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? Yes
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Explorica arranged the interview at Jobcentre.
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 3 weeks after the interview
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? no

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 155
Accommodation (monthly): € 790
Local transport (monthly): € 50
General costs of living (monthly): € 400
Costs of visa: € none
Costs of work permit: € none
What did the company pay for/to you? 300 GBP per month

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did some research about the work culture in London and I have read the reports from the previous interns.
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: 122587@nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Don’t start to late with looking for a room and try to find a room in Ealing.
London is a very expensive city but it is also a great city and you have to keep in mind that it is only for five months.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: London has a lot to offer and in the weekends you need to explore the city and you will love it!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link