Amauta Elebaires Spanish School

Placement organization

Name of organization: Amauta Elebaires Spanish School
Town/city: Buenos Aires
Country: Argentinië
Website: http://placementofficetourism.com/?page_id=29

Student

Name of student: Rebecca Coster

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Spanish School
Organization’s activities: This school has different courses and programs, all related to learning Spanish, such as a volunteer program or Business Spanish Course.
They receive new foreign students every monday. They also organize afternoon activities in and outside the school.
Moreover, they arrange accommodation for every student, so they basically arrange the whole trip.
Target group of the organization: Students mostly betweetn 18 – 25
Company culture: The culture within the company is quite informal. You can wear casual clothes, which are comfortable to you. All staff is very friendly and helpful. They want you to improve your Spanish so most of them will probably speak Spanish to you, but they can speak English so if you’re having difficulties with your Spanish in the beginning it is not a huge problem. There are 2 bosses, one from Amauta and one from Elebaires. The director of Amauta lives in Holland and the other in Buenos Aires, but they will both give you work to do, which is sometimes a little confusing.

Number of employees: 3
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Volunteer Coordinator / online marketing
Brief description of your daily activities: I had to coordinate the volunteer program by contacting the volunteer projects to ask about the availabilities and to make an appointment for a meeting with the volunteer. I did a short welcome meeting with volunteers and gave them a welcome package and eventually went with them to their first meeting. (This was not daily, because there weren’t thát many volunteer but in general I had to update the database and I was in contact with people from agencies in Holland and Peru as well.) I helped the students if they needed info, I wrote blogs and articles for the websites. Moreover, I had to update their new Facebook and Twitter page a few times per day. Addittionally, I had to take photos , as much as possible to share these online. Moreover, I had to search for new projects for the volunteer program and contacted them. After a volunteer finished its working period, I had to go to the project to pay the donation. When students & volunteers finish their course/program they receive a certificate + evaluation form, and I had to hand these out as well. Lastly, I had to collect testimonials from students and make promotion videos sometimes.
Brief description of your company assignment: I could choose my own company assignment which I found quite hard since most previous interns had done a competitor analysis I wanted to do something else. Since I was mostly working on te volunteer program I decided to write a quality improvement plan for the volunteer program. When I arrived, the organisation of this volunteer program did not go very smoothly, because the 2 schools just started working together and one of them did not have a lot of experience with volunteers, so I decided to look at the points to improve.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Since there are 2 directors (women) who just started working together, they are not always on one line with their ideas. The communication between them is also not always perfect so this was difficult for me sometimes, as I got tasks to do from both of them. The one who lives in Holland can’t really supervise because of the distance, but she wanted to check my work all the time. When I needed a document or something, it always took a while because she was also busy with other things in Holland.
The other one was very happy with all the work I did so I did not receive a lot of feedback on points of approvement. I think it would be easier to have the director who lives in Buenos Aires as the only supervisor because that makes everything a lot easier.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, stress-proof, social, flexible, communicative
Additional company requirements for this placement? Social Media, MS Office, writing skills for blogs etc,
English: Advanced
Spanish: Intermediate
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? During the first 2 monts I directly booked the student residence from the school. After that I found a studio through a friend of mine, but most people find accommodation on Craigslist. However, don’t rent a room before visiting it because sometimes pictures are different than reality. Furthermore, you should do research on the different areas because some of them are dangerous to live in as a foreigner.
How did you go to work every day? Bus and Metro, took me about 40 minutes

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? Yes
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? Yes, if your Spanish is not too good

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1150
Accommodation (monthly): € 300
Local transport (monthly): € 20
General costs of living (monthly): € 500, but depends on how much you go out and go shopping etc. and whether you make weekend trips..
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? 4 weeks Spanish Course

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I read a lot of blogs online and had some travel guides. Moreover, I spoke to the previous interns to ask about their experiences.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Definitely! Everything in Argentina is tranquilo. Time is not important and reaching people and getting them to answer your e-mails will take some time. Moreover, there is a chance that the person you have an appointment with doesn’t show up or comes an hour late, so it is very important to keep on contacting them and pushing them to give them what you need. This can be very frustrating sometimes, because the contacts in Holland do work with time and they want everything to happen quickly. On the other hand, this working environment decreases the pressure which is a positive thinng.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: coster.rebecca@gmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Even though the school is in the city center, I would recommend living in Palermo since nightlife is here and there are many restaurants and nice plaza’s in this area. Moreover, it is safer than for eample Microcentro or San Telmo during the evening.
Enjoy your time and try to see and do as much as possible, don’t keep everything till the end because Buenos Aires is huge and has a lot to offer! Also, bring a lot of different kind of clothes because the weather changes a lot! Layers are the best solution, especially if you have to travel by metro/subway during rush hour.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Countless! There are many museums, markets, shops, cafe’s, bars, parks, gardens, beautiful architecture, typical cultural attractions like Caminito and Plaza de Mayo with Casa Rosada. The school is on walking distance from the famous Avenida 9 de Julio and the Obelisco and also really close to el Congreso.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link