Throughout the year we will be following the progress of our Guest Bloggers so read on to find out how Karla and Anna have been getting on at TUI!

“Hi! We are two of the ten new placement students at TUI UK and we will be sharing our experiences of our time here through regular blogs. I, Karla am studying Tourism Management at Bournemouth University and will be working in Accommodation Only, which is part of the Early Trading Team. Anna is studying International Business at Loughborough University and has a product role in the cruise department.

As a brief overview, in the trading department we analyse sales and react with pricing decisions depending on the current state of the economy. It is really is more interesting than it sounds!!! Product on the other hand is more to do with planning, co-ordinating brochure content and unit selection.

We started the placement with a three-week induction which gave us an intense overview of the company and its values and vision. For example, we had various presentations from numerous departments within Head Office such as Marketing, Finance and HR. This gave us an insight into how the different departments interlink and allowed us to meet key individuals within the company.

As part of the induction we were given training sessions that would develop our skills needed for the year ahead. We learnt about internal systems that we will be using in our job roles and we also had a useful session on how to use Excel – which jogged a few people’s memories! Each placement student was assigned time with their teams to get to know team members and more about their individual jobs.  The current placements were also with us over this period so they could share their knowledge and help us to settle in.

One area of the induction that we all really enjoyed was a mystery shop to the Thomson, First Choice and competitors travel agencies. Aside from all the giggles, we managed to gain some valuable information that we reported to the Customer Service Manager.

One thing that we have all discovered is that the commercial team isn’t afraid to socialise! Since starting, we have not been short of invites for all kinds of events such as: meals out at lunch, rounders tournaments, picnics in the park and team nights out.

One night that stands out, for those that can remember, was the night in London to say goodbye to the old placement students. An area was booked for us in Sway bar. It was a fantastic night and it was really nice to socialise with our team outside of the office.

Since the induction we have all been settling into our roles and familiarising ourselves with daily tasks. We have regular one to one meetings with our managers to discuss our progress and set objectives. A recent meeting we have all attended is the quarterly commercial update; it gave us an overview of the performance of the division and snapshots of future plans.

So far, everyone is having a great time and we will keep you updated on what we get up to throughout the year!”

Find out more from Karla and Anna, as well as our other Guest Bloggers in the next couple of weeks!