Find out what our Guest Bloggers are getting up to. Throughtout the year we will be following the progress of our Guest Bloggers as they find a placement or keep us updated as to what they are doing on their placement. Click here to read all entries from our bloggers or click here to meet them.

Tenerife Trip

At the end of February we went on a resort trip to Tenerife and we were split in to two groups. Whilst we were there it was a mixture of fun and an educational work trip. On the first day once we arrived in sunny Tenerife we went to Siam Park, Europe’s biggest waterpark. It had some amazing slides including a kamikaze through a shark tank.

After our first day of fun, Friday was more serious. We visited the resort office, where the purchaser for Tenerife and resort Holiday Advisor managers are based. This was interesting to see what their roles involve as we talk to them on a daily basis but only in relation to our own roles, so it was interesting to see what else they do. In the afternoon after our resort visit we went to visit a few hotels in the resort we were staying.

Saturday was the busiest day of the trip. We went to see a range of our products on offer in Tenerife, from budget hotels to the flagship Sensatori Tenerife. We were all amazed at how nice Sensatori Tenerife was and all want to go back! It was the nicest hotel any of us have ever been in.

After the long day we met the reps for a night out. They showed us all the best places to go in Playa de las Americas. On Sunday morning we all went to the Riu Buenavista to do research for our project on this hotel, to match it against different products. When back in the UK we presented this to the Product Manager and Product Development. This was a really worthwhile project because we were able to judge the physical product instead of using internet sources for our research. We spent Sunday afternoon sunning ourselves round by the pool before going to the airport to catch our flight home, to be back in time for work on Monday.

Familiarisation Day

Yesterday all of the new placements for the 2010/2011 placement scheme came to the office in Luton to meet each other and their managers, to make the first day a little less daunting. Kate and Faye arranged the day for them, arranging presentations from the other placements on their jobs and moving to the area as well as some team building games. In the evening we all went for a Chinese buffet, bowling and then drinks after at Chicago’s. Everyone got to know each other well throughout the day, with all the new and old placements mixing together on the night out. It was really interesting for us to meet the people we will be training up to do our jobs. They all seem really nice and very excited to start and we can’t wait for them to come back in July and start with us.

NCWE Awards

A couple of weeks ago the TUI Commercial placement scheme won three awards at the National Council for Work Experience awards. We scooped the awards for Best Work Experience Provider: Over 250 Employees – Long term placements employing less than 20 students and Best Work Experience Provider: New Schemes. This is excellent considering the placement scheme has only been running for two years. Fighting off some of the biggest companies in the country we were named Best Overall Placement Scheme for 2009/10.

Katie, one of the current students went along with Rachel a Trading Assistant to attend the award ceremony. They were treated to a nice lunch and drinks and got to go up and collect our awards, which now take pride place in our awards cabinet. Everyone back in the office was really proud and it was featured in the Guardian last week with an interview by Katie.