EF Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: EF Tours
Town/city: London
Country: Groot-Brittannië
Website: https://www.eftours.com/

Student

Name of student: Terrence Wong

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2018-2019

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Educational Tours, with Tour directors
Organization’s activities: Everyday is different, but it is mostly helping tour directors with their tours, allocating those tours, recruitment, and most of the time we are emergency contacts when something goes wrong during a tour with a tour director.
Target group of the organization: Canadian and American students
Company culture: It is formal, but yet due to the small size of the work force it is also very comfortable. It is formal because EF Tours belongs to a much bigger EF, therefore there are plenty managers. However, so far as i’ve realise… everyone is easygoing and fun.
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?

In the Tour Director department

Brief description of your daily activities: making off-tour payments in Excel, answering phone calls and emails, sending out tour information to tour directors, helping tour directors before/ during/ after their tour, posting items and supplies, emergency posting, emergency assisting of tour directors, and assisting the staff wherever it is needed.
Brief description of your company assignment: We decided to research how to make tours more interesting and how to make most of the tour time. This is meant to improve the on-tour experience of the students.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: the supervision is very nice and useful. My supervisor is actually a bit younger than me, but she helps you a lot when it comes to daily tasks and uni assignments.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? you will have to be stress-proof and flexible, and of course good english. At some point especially during the peak season, as it can become very busy
Additional company requirements for this placement? There is no real requirements, other than English proficiently. Everything will be taught to you
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French: Basic
German: Basic
Italian: Basic
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? searched myself via various websites
How did you go to work every day? Tube & bus

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? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? Only if English isn’t at a advance level

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 90
Accommodation (monthly): € 600
Local transport (monthly): € 150
General costs of living (monthly): € 300
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Lunch, transport to and from work, transport to and from London,

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I didn’t, know the English culture quite well.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Sometimes, some British words/ slang

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 151077@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: DO NOT WORK FOR EF IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE CLOSE WORKING FOR THEIR DIRECT COMPETITOR, EXPLORICA!! Or simply make sure they don’t find out. (It’s not lying, it is simply not telling them ;))

But other than that, Do what you want to do.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: It is London, there is almost everything to do and there are events everywhere/ weekend. Also the placement company is located right on Oxford street (the main shopping area of London). Some examples of leisure activities are: cinemas (althoug expensive (VUE have 5 pound Mondays), Food (TGI Fridays, Nandos, asian, Caribbean, etc etc.), Shopping (there are every single store that you can imagine (and yes even HEMA for the Dutchies)), celebrity spotting (just have to follow events, social media, and simply keep your eyes and ears open), and more.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link