EF Educational Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: EF Educational Tours
Town/city: Madrid
Country: Spanje
Website: https://www.eftours.com/

Name of student: Isabel Tukker

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2017-2018

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: The Tours department of EF in Madrid is organizing tours abroad for students from the United States and Canada. As a trainee at the Regional Office in Madrid, you will support the other people in the department, and you will provide the Tour Directors (the people who will be guiding a group of students on a tour) with all the information and service they need.
Target group of the organization: Students from the United States and Canada
Company culture: The company culture at the Regional Office in Madrid is informal. At the Tours department, where you will be doing your internship, there is one Regional Manager, there are two Regional Coordinators, and the trainee (and sometimes another employee from the International Business School of EF), but there is no strictly visible hierarchy. During work, the atmosphere is informal.
Number of employees: In my department, including the trainee, 4, sometimes 5, but in the whole office approximately 50
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

In the Tours department, where the Tours are being prepared for the Tour Directors who will be in charge of a group.

Brief description of your daily activities: My daily tasks consist of for instance answering the telephone, corresponding with Tour Directors and other suppliers via email, doing other administrative tasks, sending out Tour Director Information packages (TDI’s), sending out Pre-Tour Contact information (PTC), sending out Tour Material in general, and contacting Tour Directors in case of changes/problems etcetera. Furthermore, I am arranging metro tickets for the Tour Directors, I am arranging train tickets for the Tour Directors, I am arranging ‘’ETOA’’ cards (a card which is mandatory for a Tour Director to be able to guide a group of students), arranging vouchers, folders and other OnTour information, taking care of the TDLinks (the tablets the Tour Directors get with them when they are on tour to be able to access the internet and arrange things), taking care of the Facebook page of the EF Regional Office in Madrid, and setting up and maintaining the evaluation system for the Tour Directors of our Regional Office.
Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment will consist of a social media plan, in order to see what the online behaviour of our Tour Directors is and in what way we can inform them the most effectively and successfully via our Facebook page.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervision I am getting is good, they are interested in you, also outside of work, and are always willing to help and to advise you.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, team player, sociable, flexible, stress-proof, easy-going and not afraid to get in contact with all different kinds of people
Additional company requirements for this placement? Office (Word, Excel, Outlook), English writing skills and basic knowledge of Spanish, since the employees are all Spanish and can speak to each other in Spanish as well besides English
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: I took the plane from Amsterdam to Madrid, but since it is in Europe and not extremely far away from Holland, other types of transport are also possible

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? I arranged my accommodation myself online
How did you go to work every day? I walk to work every day, since I luckily live only 10 minutes away by foot, but the whole of Madrid is very easily accessible by metro and there are various metro stations close to the office, of which one is very big and has multiple metro lines arriving there.

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No, if you are from Holland/the EU, you don't at least
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: I did not need to arrange any other documents
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? Not applicable to me
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance? Not applicable to me

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? My level of Spanish was already relatively good, so I decided not to, and since the language of correspondence is English, I did not really need it. However, if your Spanish is not very good or if you do not speak any Spanish at all, I might probably be nice to take Spanish classes in advance or while you are here, since you will probably have less interaction with people in the office, because most of the people prefer Spanish and among each other, they will most likely speak Spanish as well instead of English.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € Approximately around €300 or a bit over including luggage, I flew with KLM
Accommodation (monthly): € €500
Local transport (monthly): € €20 for a public transport card like in Holland with which you can travel everywhere, will be paid back to you by the company
General costs of living (monthly): € Don't know exactly, €100?
Costs of visa: € 0
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? The company paid me back afterwards for my return flight ticket, they pay me back €20 every month for my public transport card and they pay me back every month €5 per day for lunch money, since every day you will have a break of an hour during which you will go to a restaurant in the neighbourhood to have a relatively cheap menu.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not prepare myself for the country's culture, since I had been to Spain already a lot of times before coming to Madrid, but I do not think there is anything you can prepare for, since it is a Western culture as well and does not differ massively from the Dutch culture.
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: 151448@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Do not pay anything for a room in advance! This was the tip that I got from my supervisor, since renting a room in Madrid can be quite difficult and not all the places might seem what they look like in pictures.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There is always something to do anywhere! Madrid is such a big, lively city, even and also at night, so get out and explore what it has to offer! Also, try to travel to other cities around Madrid in your weekends/free time, everything is accessible by bus or train!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link