Hi!! I’m Monica, I’m 19 and I’m from Madrid, the capital city of Spain. I arrived to Brighton two week ago I started working in Nvisage this Monday.
I’ve studied a vocational training of administration during two years. I decided carry out this kind of studies because I didn’t know in that moment what I wanted to study, and this program offered me to learn quickly theoretical and practical aspects about Human Resources, Management, Project, Finances, Account, Audit, Typing, Computer applications (Microsoft Office, account programs,…) and Marketing; so I thought It could be a great idea. But the aspect I liked the most was after finish the course in the college I had to do an internship in a company during three months, and I could do it in a company of England, Ireland or Prague, if I wanted. If I would chose to do the internship in a foreign company, I had to pass all my exams before the second evaluation because my college had to ask for an Erasmus grant. The Erasmus grant is a scholarship for university and college students to work or study in a European country.
In that moment I understand that if I wanted to do the internship in a foreign country, I had to improve my English level; so I enrolled in an English study centre and, after the first year of my course, I travelled to London two weeks with some partners of college in a vocational training travel that the school organised. During the stay, I visited some companies that had a relationship with my college to do internship; included Stages, a Brighton Study Centre that organises work emplacement and home-stay for students in work practise in Brighton and Hove (mine too).
At the beginning, I wanted to do my internship in Prague, but one month before start the internship, I decided to come to Brighton. The mean reason to change my work emplacement was that the company in Prague that I liked It didn’t want to integrate students till September, and the other company was OK but I had to be alone in a flat so I though that It was going to be boring and I wanted to talk with people and friends in English too, no only in the company.
I think the most important thing for me to do an internship in a foreign company is to learn English, because the companies value English certificates, experiences in an English country; and in the most of the jobs, it’s necessary to speak fluently English. But there are other important reasons, like to know about other cultures, meeting new people, personal growth, to be more independent and to learn about how the foreign companies work.
I think it’s a really good idea that the companies integrate students to work three months. It’s an experience for a company because they can teach students how to work in a company before they look for their first job, which gives prestige to the company. In addition, I think the companies can discover new cultures and other ways to do some things and they can integrate to their way of working. Another positive point is that the student is going to help the staff to carry out some projects.
Two weeks ago arrive to Brighton, my college organised a meeting with the Erasmus students to inform us about our emplacement. I shocked when I saw in the paper that I was going to work in a web design company because I had studied Administration. But after I realised that all the companies have their own management area and I didn’t mind to learn about web design at the end, because I like to know about all kind of subjects.
Finally, I arrived to Brighton. Here, I’m learning about other lifestyle because they drive on the left side, they have dinner and go to sleep really soon for me, and they speak a language that’s not my native language. But I think I’m adapting so fast.
The first two weeks I was studying in an English school to improve my English a little bit before start in Nvisage. I visited the company the Thursday before start my internship and all the staff were really kind to me and they asked me what things I wanted to learn. I was very happy because I didn’t expect that they were going to be so close to me. Now, I have been worked three days and I think this experience is amazing. The staff has a lot of patient with me, they want me to integrate in their team and if I find out someone in the kitchen or in the corridor they stop and start to talk to me, they are teaching me about web design too and they order me to do tasks that help them, and I think at the moment they are happy with my work. All this aspects motivate me and make me feel really comfortable with the situation.
I think now I‘m enjoying of the studies I did because when I started the college two years ago, I realised that it wasn’t going to be as easy as I though. It has been two difficult years where I learned about a lot of aspects of life, because I don’t know how to explain but….Do you know when you think that one day someone is going to tell you that a hidden camera has been recording you all the time like in Big Brother because you feel like a “survivorâ€? Yes. I know it’s funny but I didn’t feel comfortable with some things that I was experiencing. But months after I realise that all those bad experiences was teaching me about bad aspects of life to grow myself and to know that I couldn’t act in that way never and I changed my attitude regard the things I didn’t like it. So I started to be more relaxed and to be more patient, and suddenly I realised that the internship was around the corner and all the things that I was learning about life I was going to put in practise. And this is what I’m trying to do! So I encourage students and companies to participate in this kind of programs, it’s a really important opportunity!
Places I visited in Brighton and linked:
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