EarthCheck

Placement organization

Name of organization: EarthCheck
Town/city: Brisbane
Country: Australië
Website: https://earthcheck.org/

Student

Name of student: Tamar Mostert

Specialist area: Tourism Management (EN)
Placement period: 2019-2020

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tourism advisory group
Organization’s activities: Providing their members and clients with consulting services, and benchmarking and certification in sustainable tourism.
Target group of the organization: Hotels, Councils, destinations, properties who want to operate in a sustainable way
Company culture: Very social team and everybody is friendly, but during work formal and focused.
Number of employees: 30
Dress code: formal
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? I’ve been working in the consulting department for 10 weeks, and 10 weeks in the benchmarking department. This is an opportunity to see both sides of the company.

Brief description of your daily activities: Consulting department: You will assist your colleagues with projects by doing research, making reports, PowerPoints, change lay out of reports for colleagues, analyzing data from for example Survey monkey.
Benchmarking department: tasks are more of a routine. You’ll work on data submissions, clarifications of submitted data which will be send to our members and writing appendices for final reports. Besides this, there are most of the time some other tasks which need to be finished, but this will depend on the period.

Brief description of your company assignment: I’ve been working on a priority assessment for sustainability and risk&resilience from councils in New South Wales. This research provides EarthCheck with insight in commercial opportunities.

Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Everyone is very friendly and always willing to help you. You need a level of independence to work on your tasks and projects. They give you enough time to work on your school assignments.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, Sociable,
Additional company requirements for this placement? English writing skills, some MS office skills
English: Advanced

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Myself
How did you go to work every day? By foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? yes, i had a working holiday visa
Do you need a work permit? no
How did you arrange the necessary documents: online
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 2 hours
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? No. If you’re studying ITM, you will be fine. If studying TM, make sure you have a certain level of English

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1100
Accommodation (monthly): € 800
Local transport (monthly): € 40
General costs of living (monthly): € 600
Costs of visa: € 320
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? No financial compensation

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I read a lot on the internet about Australia, and heard a lot about it from friends. No specific preparation is needed as the culture is very similar to the Netherlands.
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: 172927@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Make sure you saved some money as Australia is more expensive than the Netherlands. Especially when you want to do a lot of trips. Make sure you have enough time to travel as it takes some time to go to different places as the country is so big, and there is so much to see and do. Try to find accommodation at a place with other students, so you meet a lot of new people.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Brisbane has a lot of things to offer. Enough places to party, nice bars or places to go for dinner, City beach. There are a lot of things you can do during the weekends which are close by: Visit Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island. Go to Noosa for a weekend, good place to surf and relaxed vibe. Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast are also close to Brisbane. Byron Bay for a weekend.
If you have enough time and money, try to go to Melbourne, Sydney, travel along the east coast (Fraser island, Whitsundays, Magnetic Island, Cairns, GBR), and the Outback.

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