Uniqueworld Ltd

Placement organization

Name of organization: Uniqueworld Ltd
Town/city: London
Country: Groot-Brittannië
Website: http://www.uniqueworld.eu

Student

Name of student: Ngoc Tran

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2017-2018

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Destination Management Company
Organization’s activities: We organize trips for leisure/business clients who would like travel to other destination. We mostly work with groups from 10 pax. It can be an incentive trip, congress, meetings or for a big event.
Target group of the organization: Business companies, agencies
Company culture: Uniqueworld is a destination management company that covers England and Scotland. It is also a destination marketing company for European destinations. It’s a worldwide organisation. This office consists of four people, including me, therefor it is a rather small corporation. It consists of my boss Andrew, who is never in the office, Christian the sales manager and my supervisor, other intern from Italy who is doing her master for 3 months, and me, an intern. Uniqueworld is a DMC that attracts clients and companies from all over the world that would like to organize a trip or a meeting. It can be a business or a leisure trip for more than 10 people. Clients will send their enquiry to the main office, we will then contact the customer, discuss their needs and wants and then redirect them to the office that is located in the country they want to visit. We contact the DMC in the country where they would like to stay.
Number of employees: 3
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes and no

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

I work as a Sales Coordinator in the Sales Department.

Brief description of your daily activities: During my placement my daily activities differs per day.

Here are some of the main duties:
– Customer service (follow up clients after making an enquiry)
– Book and plan tradeshows (IMEX 2018)
– Assist in international events
– Handle enquiries
– Contact companies
– Launching the website
– Organize filing system
– Website design
– Administration
– Proposal writing
Brief description of your company assignment: I have not start yet with the company assignment
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I work with Christian. He is a very nice man, butI must say he is very chaotic. At the beginning I was not satisfied how everything was organised. As you know he is a sales manager and he knows how to talk or to convince you, I could say some things did not meet my expectation.

When I came to the office on the first day, he did not even had time to explain or teach me about my tasks. That day I was just sitting in the office doing nothing and he even asked me to stay until 7pm.I learned everything from another intern within 1 month. That’s how it works with Uniqueworld, there are no employees in the office. It’s just you and Christian, and if you are lucky there is another intern. You should be very independent to work for Uniqueworld. After the other intern left, I had to work for 4 weeks by myself. I must say that one the benefits is that you learn a lot after this placement. I have never worked with Photoshop before and after two months I learned how to do this.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, team player, flexible, stress-proof, representable, motivated, eager to learn
Additional company requirements for this placement? Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft, Act, Powerpoint, Excel
English: Mother tongue
Spanish: Basic
French: Basic
German: Intermediate
Italian: Basic
Other languages: It’s mandatory to speak English on an advance level

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane, train, bus and boat

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? internet
How did you go to work every day? 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:
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 there is no need if you have English in school

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 0
Accommodation (monthly): € 750
Local transport (monthly): € 25
General costs of living (monthly): € 1000
Costs of visa: € 0
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? There is no financial compensation. Every student should consider this and make a decision before applying for London. London is very expensive!

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
N/A Western culture
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? n/a Western culture

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 150352@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Tips:

– Buy an oyster card (5 pounds) and you can top up your card when you go. (saves money and time) To take the bus from zone 1 to zone 2 is only 1,50. If you take the tube (underground) it cost 2.30 one way and return 4.60
-Avoid taxi’s, you will be in traffic jam for so long and it cost a lot of money. It would be more easy to take the underground.
-Find your room atleast 2-3 weeks before moving to London (spareroom.co.uk) is a very good website to find a room! Be careful with scammers!( I stayed in Leytonstoneroad 118 and I shared the house with 6 other tentants. You will share the kitchen and bathrooms.)
-There are ATMs with free cash withdrawal.
-On opentable.co.uk you will find daily deals for lunch/dinners in restaurants
-Bring your own kettle with you. I love to drink tea and it’s ideal for in my room!
-Bring nice pictures or memories with you to make it more home for yourself.

Recommendations:
-Go to a museum during weekend (museums are free)
-There are a lot of food markets, go on a food tour and explore different markets like Borough market, Camden and Spitalfield market
-Around May/June it’s defitely worth it to go to Hyde Park, Green Park or Greenwich Park. There are a lot of parks!
-Retail shops are open until 21.00. Ideal to go after work!
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Stratford has become more lively because of the big shopping mall. It’s 5 min by foot from Westfield shopping centre. If you walk to Stratford Centre and Westfield you will find a lot of nice restaurants/cafes.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link