EF Tours

Placement organization

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

Student

Name of student: Sylvana van Werde

Specialist area: MTT
Placement period: 2012-2013

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Taking care of the tour directors, providing them with supplies, make sure they have all the documents and allocate the TD’s to tours, take care of on tour emergencies.
Target group of the organization: American and Canadian high school/college student groups.
Company culture: The communication is very informal, the colleagues are very nice and if you have any questions you can always ask them and somebody will help you.
Number of employees: 5
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? EF is a company with a lot of departments. At this location, there is the language school, the sales office and the tours department. EF tours has 5 employees at the office, and about 120 tour direcors working for the Rome office. The tourdirectors come to the office sometimes, to make some calls and confirm the tour, that is why it can be very crowded in the office sometimes.
I worked in the EF Tours department.
Brief description of your daily activities: Sending out tour information to the tour directors, being in charge over the metro tickets, collect required documents form the tour directors, try to help if tour directors have any questions or emergencies.
Brief description of your company assignment: Make a competition analysis
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: No comments, it was good.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? You have to be able to work independently and to take initiative. Also you have to be stress proof, as it can be very hectic in the office.
Additional company requirements for this placement? Excel, Outlook.
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian: Basic
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Previous student doing this placement
How did you go to work every day? Public Transport or by foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: The only thing you need is a fiscal code. To get one does not take long.
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? No

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? Yes
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? Yes. Italian is not obligated, but definitely a con, as everybody in the office speaks Italian

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 160,00 (this will be reimbursed by EF)
Accommodation (monthly): € 500,00
Local transport (monthly): € 35,00 (this will be reimbursed by EF)
General costs of living (monthly): € 350,00. This really depends on your lifestyle. I tried to make the most out of it so I spent a lot. But if you dont have the money, you can also make it here for a lot less.
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Lunchmoney 5 EUR per day, 35 EUR monthly transportation pass

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? The Italian culture is very relaxed and friendly.

Future students on placement

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

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Try to learn Italian, the company offers you classes because the office is in the same location as the school. But I got mine after 2,5 months, I don’t know if that is always the case but it would definitely help you if you already know some basic Italian. The people in the office all speak English, but to each other they speak Italian and it is nice to know what they are talking about.
Besides this, try to enjoy Rome as much as you can, it is a great and beautiful city!

Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Rome has a lot of leisure possibilities. A lot of restaurants, bars and clubs in the city. Also there are of course a lot of beautiful sites you can’t miss! The beach is one hour away from the city, and there are many small places you can visit which you usually would skip if you are only there on a city trip

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link