Authentic Scandinavia

Placement organization

Name of organization: Authentic Scandinavia
Town/city: Oslo
Country: Noorwegen
Website: http://www.authentic-scandinavia.com

Student

Name of student: Sanne van ’t Net

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2012-2013

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator
Organization’s activities: Authentic Scandinavia is part of the Haman Group, which consists of different tour operators.
Authentic Scandinavia sells Scandinavian tour packages to individual travellers
Target group of the organization: Mainly clients from English-speaking countries as well as Asian countries
Company culture: I was actually quite treated just like the other employees. I did the same as the other employees. And since it is a Scandinavian company is everyone equal and treated quite the same.
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? Since it is such a small company, did I have a large variety of tasks. But I would say I worked in the booking department.
Brief description of your daily activities: – Doing bookings
– Cancellations
– Payments
– Booking excursions
– Sending out travel documents
– Contact with clients and suppliers
– Updating info on the website and in Tourplan
–
Brief description of your company assignment: I researched how Authentic Scandinavia can successfully sell a new destination (Iceland).
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Trude was my supervisor during my placement. She is the manager of Authentic Scandinavia. She lets you work independent and gives you a lot of responsibility.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, stress-proof, quick-learner.
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, Excel and Tourplan. Tourplan is the system which is used for the bookings. The programme will totally explained to you.
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Found it on ankerstudentbolig.no
How did you go to work every day? Public Transport

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No, but you have to register you at the Norwegian tax office.
How did you arrange the necessary documents: I did not need any documents. But it took me quite a while to find a room. This for the reason that I was a bit skeptic about all the internet advertisements (I heard stories that people had paid a deposit but never got the keys to the room….)
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? No

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? n/a

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 200,00
Accommodation (monthly): € 750,00 (Rent is super expensive, everyone I know here pays around this amount and the ones who don’t live very far away from the city)
Local transport (monthly): € 80,00 (company pays your transport card)
General costs of living (monthly): € 500,00
How long in advance did you apply for visa
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? EUR 700,00 per month + a public transport card and lunch was provided.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? No, the Scandinavian culture is quite comparable to the Dutch culture. Norwegian people are not very open and quite individual though.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 113687@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Try to work on your assignments as much as possible in the beginning of your placement (especially if you start in the winter), because then it is not really busy yet. Don’t keep postponing it so you have to do everything when it is busy in the company and the weather is nice to do things.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Oslo is a really nice city during summer time. In the winter everyone is locked up inside and there is not much to do. I do recommend you to go sledging in the Holmenkollen area in the winter though! During spring/summer you have to go to the islands in the Oslo Fjord. I also recommend you to bring a lot of money since Oslo is extremely expensive (especially alcohol and going out). However, it is a great experience to live and work in one of the richest countries in the world and you will definitely learn a lot!

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link