EF Educational Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: EF Educational Tours
Town/city: London
Country: Groot-Brittannië
Website: http://www.eftours.com/

Name of student: Sanja Zagers

Specialist area: MTT
Placement period: 2016-2017

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: EF educational travel/tours provides international and domestic travel experiences, hands-on learning and lasting cultural connections for both students and adults. As ET we are trying to break down the barriers of language, culture and geography by providing international travel experiences to teachers and students in North-America.
Target group of the organization: American and Canadian high school students
Company culture: The atmosphere is very informal. There’s tour directors walking in and out of the office at all times and everyone is very friendly.
Number of employees: 6 in the 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? The regional office in London (there are regional offices all over the world).
Brief description of your daily activities: – Sending the tour itinerary and other necessary reports to our tour directors
– Setting up the TDLinks (tablets) that the tour directors use during their tours.
– Monitoring the tour director’s evaluations and handling the bonuses.
– Handling the off-tour payments requests of the tour directors
– Distributing all the other tour materials that our tour directors might need on their tour (vouchers, EF bags, a EF prepaid card, tablet etc.)
– Helping the tour directors out whenever they have questions, either by phone or email.

Brief description of your company assignment: Improving the recruitment process of new tour directors. As of now, most of the new tour directors come from recommendations from other tour directors. I’m looking for new platforms, either online or offline, for EF to publish their vacancies.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisor Isabella is very nice and helpful. She will always take the time to answer my questions. However, you get a lot of responsibility at this placement. You’re in charge of your own tasks and if you don’t have any questions, you just do everything by yourself.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Pro-active, independent, accurate
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, Excel
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Plane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Through Spareroom and Facebook
How did you go to work every day? Tube or bus

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? No, not necessary

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 300 (EF reimburses this)
Accommodation (monthly): € 850
Local transport (monthly): € 130 (EF reimburses this)
General costs of living (monthly): € 400
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? – Return plane ticket
– Monthly travel card
– 8 GBP per day for lunch

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I didn’t.
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: sanjazagers@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: London is a very expensive city and rent can be sky-high. I chose to live quite central in a very popular neighborhood (I live in Camden, zone 2) so obviously the rent is a little higher. If you don’t want to pay a lot, you can look into neighborhoods that are more far out. I traveled to London for just three days before the start of my internship, just to do as many viewings as possible, because I didn’t want to sign a contract or pay a deposit without having seen the room myself. I can totally recommend this! You can always contact me if you have more questions about renting a room in London.
I joined countless of Facebook groups to meet new people. Dojo is also a nice app to find upcoming (free) events.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: It’s London, you can do anything you want.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link