Abercrombie & Kent

Placement organization

Name of organization: Abercrombie & Kent
Town/city: Melbourne
Country: Australië
Website: http://www.abercrombiekent.com.au/

Student

Name of student: Pam van Beurden

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2015-2016

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Luxury Travel Company
Organization’s activities: Abercrombie & Kent wants to create the most inspirational experiences in the world. A&K offers trips in the most beautiful destinations with many luxury possibilities. It is great to see that the employers all have a passion for travel and that is maybe why the company is successful.
Target group of the organization: 30+
Company culture: Meetings are formal, but the way employers communicate with each other can be seen as informal. That is why I would say that there is a mixture. The environment is very comfortable and everyone is very welcoming and helpful.
Number of employees: Approximately 50
Dress code: formal
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Marketing Department
Brief description of your daily activities: The main activities are:

-Social Media
-Brochure Loading
-Campaigns (these are very interesting!)

Working in an office can be quite boring, but not at Abercrombie & Kent. I never had that I had to do the same things over and over again. The tasks were challenging, interesting and creative.

Brief description of your company assignment: New Social Media Strategy

-Research
-Develop
-Launch (campaigning & promoting!)
-Report
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I think I could not ask for a better supervision. My supervisor always helped me and she really wanted to make the best out of my internship. At A&K they really involve you and you are not ‘just an intern’, you are part of the team!

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Teamplayer and Flexible
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office
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? Previous students
How did you go to work every day? Bicycle or Tram

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes, a Working Holiday Visa
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? I won’t worry too much if you had English on school plus they always try to understand you.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1150
Accommodation (monthly): € 500- 550
Local transport (monthly): € 100 (if you take the tram to work every day)
General costs of living (monthly): € I can’t really answer this question. This is because I shared my groceries with another student. The only thing you really need to know is that Australia is expensive!
Costs of visa: € Around 300 (depends of the Dollar rates)
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Financial compensation $300 per week (but the tax % is around 32,5% unfortunately)

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Internet, friends and family and I even bought a book.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes and no. The people are so friendly here and they help you with everything even though it is something really small. Whereas in the Netherlands they would try to find it yourself.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 133645@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: I don’t have recommendations what you shouldn’t do, only what you can do. If you want an interesting and educational internship, Melbourne is your destination to go to! I will guarantee you a great time at A&K!
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There is a lot to do, my highlights are:
-Great Ocean Road
-Philip Island
-Mornington Peninsula
-Tasmania

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link