Toerisme Vlaanderen

Placement organization

Name of organization: Toerisme Vlaanderen
Town/city: Brussels
Country: België
Website: http://toerismevlaanderen.be

Name of student: Glenn Lakeman

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Governmental organisation
Organization’s activities: Working with CRM
Working with the database
Answer info questions
Updating Brochures
Sending Brochures

Target group of the organization: People with a disability that want to travel to Belgium
Company culture: In this company there is a good atmosphere, the people are always friendly and the conversations are not always about work. The style is mostly informal. There are close relations between the people that work here and they are not afraid to share all the information. The language is Dutch.
Number of employees: 161
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Accessible tourism, this department is working to show the accessible facilities in Flanders. It is working not only for the people in Belgium but also for people outside of Belgium with a disability that need help when going on a holiday. For example people in a wheelchair. This company shows all the accessible restaurants, attractions, transport etc. They also answer al the questions these people have and they have labels when a facility is accessible.
Brief description of your daily activities: The daily activities are very repetitive in the beginning such as updating brochures and mailing all the partners and facilities. However, when you become more familiar with their activities, you get the responsibility for answering information questions or making a brochure and managing the social media.
Brief description of your company assignment: The company assignment i got was making a brochure as inspiration for tour operators to begin an accessible offer in other countries than Belgium. They are a governmental institution and they weren’t allowed to answer questions about other countries than Belgium (flanders) anymore. So tour operators had to take this over. This brochure was a start to give them basic info and stimulate them to start such an offer.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervision was good. You get a lot of freedom and 90 percent of the time, you work on the tasks alone. First i got information how to do it and from then on, you can work on it alone. Of course they answer all the questions you have. They were very helpful. So it is a good thing to be independent here.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, sociable, writing skills
Additional company requirements for this placement? Excell, Word, MS office, HTML.
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French: Basic
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Train

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? NHTV contact list
How did you go to work every day? train

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? No

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € Bergen op Zoom-Brussel return ticket: 36 euro
Accommodation (monthly): € 10 minutes with train from company: 520 euro
Local transport (monthly): € 40
General costs of living (monthly): € 50/100
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Only Transport

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I didn’t prepare for it because it is kind of the same as the culture in the Netherlands.
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: glenn.l@live.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: In this company there is a very good atmosphere with friendly people, so you can be yourself. Important is that you can work independently and that you are social both to colleagues and the people that need help when going on a holiday. It is a very good option to work here, only the tasks can be a bit repetative in the beginning, but that makes you learn more about the subject.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The company is in the center of Brussels, directly in front of the big market. So within 10 minutes, it is possible to reach all the attractions in Brussels.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link