Travelife

Placement organization

Name of organization: Travelife
Town/city: Amsterdam
Country: NL – Noord-Holland
Website:

Student

Name of student: Vlad Vatau

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

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Certification Initiative
Organization’s activities: -Training of companies in CSR and sustainable practices
-Giving certificates based on company performance
-Auditing sustainable report and on site
Target group of the organization: Tour operators and travel agencies
Company culture: Informal. Hierarchy is mostly horizontal
Number of employees: 8
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

As an intern, you would be involved in all departments (marketing, HR, accounting and finance, customer services, etc.)

Brief description of your daily activities: The main tasks are to research and manage development projects, help with the preparation and the coordination of events, entering data in the web platform, follow-up with potential clients and facilitating Travelife member’s engagement with the sustainability management system.

Brief description of your company assignment: Research based on professional literature and data of partner companies whether or not a sustainability certification like Travelife helps at improving a company from the tourism industry on the financial and managerial part.

Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervision at Travelife is done by the Chi Nguyen, the Sustainability Account Manager. She guides and helps the interns along the way with whatever they would need, professional and personal wise.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Sociable, performable, adaptable.
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, especially Excel and Word; SEO; good communication skills
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Any other language at advanced or mother tongue level is a plus, but not mandatory.

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Train/bus/bike/tram (depending where you live)

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? myself
How did you go to work every day? Train

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? Yes
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

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 0
Accommodation (monthly): € 350
Local transport (monthly): € 400
General costs of living (monthly): € 300
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Financial compensation – EUR300
Reimbursement of travel expenses

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not prepare at all as I did not know what to expect. I would recommend people to be open-minded and open to learning from others because Travelife has a diverse cultural environment.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Netherlands

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: vlad.vatau.vv@gmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Communication is very important. Whenever you don’t know a certain thing as right away. Everyone is there to help you. Pay great attention to details.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There is a market on walking distance with all kind of bars, restaurants, shops, etc. The working place is 5 minutes away by train (the train station being 2 minutes away by foot) from the city center of Amsterdam.

Media