NBTC

Placement organization

Name of organization: NBTC
Town/city: Cologne
Country: Duitsland
Website: https://www.nbtc.nl/

Student

Name of student: Sarah Walter

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2018-2019

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: national tourism board
Organization’s activities: marketing and promotion of the brand Holland and the Netherlands as a destination
Target group of the organization: German market (mostly NRW and Niedersachsen)
Company culture: very informal
Number of employees: 4 regular employees + 2 interns
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

Marketing

Brief description of your daily activities: – creating website content for the German webpages on www.holland.com
– creating and evaluating newsletters
– translating texts from Dutch to German for marketing content (websites, newsletters) or press releases
– supporting activities of cross-channel marketing campaigns (offline and online)
– monitoring and evaluating the website
– supporting and monitoring the online promotion campaign
– communicating with business partners
– administrative tasks
Brief description of your company assignment: Monitoring and evaluating the webpages of a campaign and making an analysis of implications and possible recommendations to improve the website performance and increase engagement.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Good supervision. I worked independently most of the time but since we all shared one office, there is always someone you can ask if you have questions.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? team player, sociable, independent, professional attitude, stress-proof
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS-Office, good writing skills, native-level of German
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German: Mother tongue
Italian:
Other languages: Dutch: intermediate (good reading and writing skills, preferably good oral skills as well)

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: train

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? internet
How did you go to work every day? tram

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? no (for people with EU passport)
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? Your mother-tongue should be German so no prior language course is necessary

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € about 50€ from Breda for the train ticket
Accommodation (monthly): € 245€ but i lived a little outside of the city. For a shared flat in the city centre you pay about 350€ to 450€
Local transport (monthly): € 80€-120€ for a monthly ticket (this is covered by the company)
General costs of living (monthly): € 150€-200€
Costs of visa: € –
Costs of work permit: € –
What did the company pay for/to you? a financial compensation + travel expenses

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I was born and raised in Germany so I didn’t have to prepare.
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: sarahwalter0007@gmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Be sociable and talk to people and grab lunch together with colleagues or join them for drinks after work. The work atomphere is very important to the employees.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Cologne has more than 1 million inhabitants so there is always something to do or to discover. The city is of course famous for Carneval.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link