EF Educational Tours

Placement organization

Name of organization: EF Educational Tours
Town/city: Madrid
Country: Spanje
Website: https://www.eftours.com

Student

Name of student: Ruben van der Meer
Specialist area: Tourism Management (NL)
Placement period: 2021-2022

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour organization
Organization’s activities: Organizing tours for mostly Northern American Highschool students for an educational experience in Europe. The Office in Madrid helps the Tour Directors (tour guides) with everything they possibly need when on tour. The Tour Directors are freelancers, so they aren’t employed by EF.
Target group of the organization: Northern American travelers
Company culture: Informal, familial, totally no hierarchy.
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?

Regional Office of EF tours. EF tours is a very big company with many different departments offices and employees. EF Tours has a couple of regional offices spread around Europe and they’re helping the Tour Directors getting tours, and when they are actually on the road.

Brief description of your daily activities: My daily activities are:
– Sending out Pre Tour emails
– doing Pre Tour calls
– I have been a big part in the selection process of selecting new Tour Directors. So I was able to learn a lot about selections in a big company.
Brief description of your company assignment: My Company assignment is about the EF tours Social media pages for the Tour Directors, where they can get a lot of information from. how to improve the pages, seeing if they actually get used and making changes.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The Supervision at the company is amazing, super nice staff and definitely feels like a family. They gave me a lot of freedom to work for myself and help me whenever needed. Roberto is my supervisor and is absolutely amazing. Beverley and Sophie are the sweetest colleagues you’ll ever have.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? English, stress proof, team player, social skills and adaptability
Additional company requirements for this placement? Office and the usual online knowledge everybody has.
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Via a website called Idealista. but there are a couple of websites that will also work. EF will help you with this.
How did you go to work every day? Public transportation, mostly Metro.

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? no
Do you need a work permit? no
How did you arrange the necessary documents: N/A
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? N/A
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance? N/A

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? yes, being a starter in Spanish helps feeling more at home in the country as well as in the company. Since one of the languages spoken in the office is Spanish. But not required.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 300
Accommodation (monthly): € 700
Local transport (monthly): € 20
General costs of living (monthly): € 100-150
Costs of visa: € N/A
Costs of work permit: € N/A
What did the company pay for/to you? Return flight from The Netherlands.

Public transportation card, to travel in all of the Community of Madrid. not just the city.

5 euros lunch allowance per day.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not really prepare. Spanish culture was quite familiar for me. Just taking Spanish in school.
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: Rubenvdmeer0@gmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do:

Do:
learn a bit of Spanish, Madrid is a very international city, however the level of English in this city is very low and a lot of people do not speak nor understand a single word.

Look for accommodation outside of the city centre, the city centre is very expensive and most of the time very small.

Take into consideration that Madrid in summer is mentally hot and can be qutte cold in winter, so really prepare yourself for every single circumstance.

Don’t:
Pay (like me) 700 euros for a room. Rooms can be way cheaper and definitely do not have to cost this much. even with a private bathroom, rooms can be way cheaper.

Book accommodation outside of the M30 highway ring, Madrid doesn’t seem very big on a map, but the city is enormous and distances between certain points are very far. If you see good accommodation outside of the M30, make sure it is close to a metro station or make sure the transportation is frequent and close by.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The city is amazing, beautiful and traveling domestically in Spain can be very cheap. (I’m talking about 9 euro one way train tickets from Madrid to Barcelona)

When traveling to other cities always look for High speed trains. Even though trains sometimes are more expensive, it is well worth the extra Euros. Way more comfortable and in a lot of cases, door to door a lot quicker.
Of course visiting the islands is the best option and these are super cheap as well.

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