Betriebspraktikum Fremdsprachenassistenten
Start date: Jun 1, 2015,
End date: May 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The eight-week work placement in summer/autumn 2015 is an integral part of the course "Commercial Assistant with Languages (English/French/Spanish)" at the commercial college Berufskolleg Kaufmannsschule Krefeld, a college in the fields of economics and business administration. This full-time course provides profound knowledge of any form of business communication in two foreign languages as well as all commercial and administrative activities, such as business management, export/import documentation, accounting, office practice as well as data and word processing.
It is essential for our students to gain practical experience as well. Besides becoming familiar with standard business procedures as well as company structures and enabling them to use their knowledge and improve their skills acquired during their course, a work placement abroad offers them an insight into everyday working atmosphere and living conditions in other European countries. For young people interested in the European integration process and training for a career in an international environment a stay abroad is a prerequisite for a successful start into professional life.
The following intentions and objectives have been worked out together with companies that offer our students the opportunity to pass a work placement abroad: to obtain an insight into in-company procedures by using the country's language; to experience the single European market and realize special strategies of discovering the German market from the foreign company's point of view; to experience the basic ties and differences between cultures, to learn to develop sympathy for culture, life and mentality of the host country, thus reacting reasonably in the foreign language and if necessary being able to reply critically to prejudices; to obtain knowledge about socio-economic and political relations and problems of the host country in order to deal with national characteristics in everyday situations.
Our students are offered work placements in various European countries; they choose a host country according to their personal expectations based on their skills and command of the foreign language to be improved substantially with the help of this project. The countries providing work placements are France, Spain, England and Malta. Only those companies are selected which can provide a qualified work placement in agreement with the coordinators at Berufskolleg Kaufmannsschule Krefeld. Moreover these criteria are ensured by the details of the training programme laid down in the contracts between the participant, our school as the project coordinator and the coordinator of the host institution. To certify the work placements the students are issued the Europass Mobility on completion of the training programme.
Due to the experiences from former projects the minimum period of the placement has been extended from previously six weeks to eight weeks at present. Companies as well as trainees will no doubt profit from this measure by achieving a more intensive practical experience and qualification. The work placement is appropriately arranged to take place in the final year of the course, thus offering advanced students a much better understanding of company procedures. Students generally work in all commercial departments of a company or public institution such as purchasing, sales or export/import departments as well in administration.
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