Small World Journeys

Placement organization

Name of organization: Small World Journeys
Town/city: Cairns
Country: Australië
Website: https://www.smallworldjourneys.com.au

Student

Name of student: Marc George

Specialist area: Tourism Management (EN)
Placement period: 2018-2019

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Educational Tour Operator
Organization’s activities: Offering educational tours for student and school groups.
Target group of the organization: Students/School groups(High school, University)
Company culture: +-6 employees working actively in the office.
Vision: “to be Australians premier provider of youth education outside the classroom.”
Mission Statement: “connect young people to community, culture and nature through exceptional tours.”
Core Values: “absolute integrity, passion for education, unfailing support of staff and guests and commitment to sustainability.”
Number of employees: +-20
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

mostly in the marketing department

Brief description of your daily activities:
updating website
assisting with preparation and operations before and during trips
creation of proposals
creation of day by day templates
creating budgets
preparing after movies and pictures for website
carrying out teacher evaluation forms
Brief description of your company assignment: creation of a new marketing plan for a new business idea of the company.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Depending on which task, an employee of that specific department was supervising me. During the entire internship, Laurie, the owner of the company supervised me as well.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, communicative, sociable, teamwork, open
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office (excel,word,powerpoint), WordPress, other programms which I got to know during the placement
English: Advanced
Other languages: English was the main language to communicate with the employees. My supervisor Laurie can also speak French. Deborah, with who I worked a lot also speaks Portuguese.

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? through the company
How did you go to work every day? by bike or by foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? yes, placement (trainee) visa
Do you need a work permit? no
How did you arrange the necessary documents: by myself
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? +-4 days
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 your English is not good. Australians can also have a strong accent

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 700 return ticket
Accommodation (monthly): € 90 a week
Local transport (monthly): € barely used public transport
General costs of living (monthly): € 500-600
Costs of visa: € 0
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? they gave me a bike I could use every day
trips + accomodation while being on trips

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
not really
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? not really, maybe the weather conditions at the beginning were harsh because it was super humid and hot

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 163318@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Cairns might be a small city at first but there is so much to do. A good sense of humour is also needed at the office, everyone is open and fun.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: plenty such as the Daintree Forest, Atherton Tablelands with various waterfalls, hikes, diving, Islands (Fitzroy Island)
Having an international driving licence to make use of a car is good to have, easier to get around outside Cairns.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link