Ophelix Scandinavia

Placement organization

Name of organization: Ophelix Scandinavia
Town/city: Oslo
Country: Noorwegen
Website: https://www.ophelix.no/en/

Student

Name of student: Sanne Berende

Specialist area: Tourism Management (EN)
Placement period: 2021-2022

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Destination Management Company
Organization’s activities: The main activity is working on requests for incoming and outgoing trips for the corporate sector. These could be events, conferences, meetings or company trips. The main part is contacting hotels, venues, etc for offers for your project and collect information on each of them including pictures to create a presentation and budget sheet.
Target group of the organization: Corporate sector
Company culture: The culture is very informal, the employees are spread over several destinations and the group I work with consists of 4 in total. I do have quite some contact with the other employees about the different tasks going on. In general, it is very relaxed. Sometimes when you have a project going on, there is a deadline to work with. This means that once in a while you have to work a bit longer than usual. Most of the time this will be compensated by either a meal during the evening when you stay longer or a day off for working on weekends. As I said, it does not happen that much, but sometimes it does.
Number of employees: 12
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 the company is rather small, I help out on many departments. The official title is project assistent and you assist the managers in their projects by looking for hotels, activities etc. You will be contacting them to ask for prices for that specific request and also pictures that will be used in the presentation for the client.

Brief description of your daily activities: There is a variety of activities that the intern will be doing. The main are creating offers for clients, social media, newsletters, accounting and some small side tasks. While doing those tasks you will have, especially while creating offers, a lot of contact with suppliers like hotels, restaurants and stuff. It is important to keep those contacts good in order to create a cooperation for future projects.
The fun part is that you will learn new platform to work with that quite many professional companies use as well. So a lot of knowledge will be gained!
Brief description of your company assignment: The company has changed names beginning of this year, I am analysing the Social Media usage and do research on how to improve it and what is their main goal when they use social platforms.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervision is really good. They really want you to grow and develop many skills. The support is great, they really focus on how you can still improve in order to become only better and better instead of focusing on mistakes. They will also tell you when you are doing a good job which is always good to hear. Therefore, the motivation increases because they really are thankful with what you do and only want the best learning environment. You will not be treated as an intern.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Flexible, stress proof, independent, sociable, team player.
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, writing skills on formal level.
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Norwegian could be helpful, not necessary

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Myself, with tips from the company
How did you go to work every day? By foot, it is a 15min walk

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? Covid vaccination, at least 2 weeks prior to arrival

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 not necessary, good level of English is necessary

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): ±Single ticket, 180eu including 1x hand luggage and 1x big luggage
Accommodation (monthly): € ±1300eu including all services
Local transport (monthly): € Similar to the Netherlands. Don´t use it that often, I walk a lot.
General costs of living (monthly): € ±250eu a month on groceries
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? You will get no compensation from the company. They will give you a phone to do calls related to work and also for them to contact you on.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I was already aware of the culture since I have been in Norway before. The difference is not really big. Norwegians are way less direct as Dutch people and more introverts but are always willing to help you out and welcome you.
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: 172216@buas.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: It is important to save money a bit since it is more expensive to live here. Apply for the Erasmus scholarship. Furthermore, be prepared on a lot of change in weather. Especially during winter it gets very cold. Also, the amount of sun during the day decreases in winter. Only about 4 to 5 hours a day. Your biological clock needs to adapt to this, give it time. Furthermore, stand open for new people and adventures. Do a lot of exploring around the city.

Don´t expect to sit back, because you really have to work. But it is all fun to do and really useful for the future.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There are quite some events during the complete year. The city itself does not really have to offer a lot for sightseeing but there is always something to do. Really try to explore the city as much as you can also the outer parts not only the city centre. During winter there will be the Christmas markets of course and during summer there will be music events and many more.

There is also nature very close by to escape the bustling city.

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