"Within the framework of Erasmus+ – a funding program of the European Union – we made an internship in Doncaster, England for three weeks. This internship is part of the commercial training at VOCO. We are deeply grateful that we had the possibility to collect these impressions and experiences.
Our journey started in Bremen. From there we flew to Frankfurt and later to Manchester. We reached our destination, which was Doncaster, by train and bus. During our internship we were three (Marle, Rieke and an apprentice from TAD Pharma GmbH) living in an apartment in the centre of the city. On our first day of work the coordinators from UK accompanied us to show us our internship companies.”
Marle: I worked in the customer service of “Diamond Serviced Apartments”. The company rents more than 100 apartments in the UK and looks after the guests during their stay. During the internship my main task was to take care of the guests. I had my own workplace and I phoned the guests every day. I have checked whether the check-ins have gone well, that cleanings and repairs have been organized, or that check-ins and check-outs have been prepared for example. My colleagues were very kind and I became part of the team.
Rieke: I did my internship in a hotel of the hotel chain “Accor“, they also own hotels in France and Germany. In the beginning I primarily had some research tasks and listed the results in Excel lists. Later I was allowed to work at the reception of the hotel. I was responsible for the check-ins and check-outs of the guests, the reservations and “cash banking”. I felt very well and it was interesting to look behind the scenes of a hotel.
In addition to our daily work we also had free time, in which we have done a lot. We visited the theatre in Doncaster, an indoor trampoline park and spent one day in York for example. Moreover we spent our second weekend in London.
Our conclusion: We really enjoyed the time in England and had the chance to get to know the English way of working. We improved our language skills, met very kind English people and got to know the English culture.