Learning Log of Erasmus Trainee Johanna from Austria after an awesome time living and working in Northern Ireland

Welcome to my last blog:  Every good story has an ending and today ends my four-week Erasmus traineeship experience abroad. My last blog – the learning log of my traineeship at Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing and TrainingMatchmaker. has been crafted to help inpsire others to get learning too. My name is Johanna  and I am 18 years old. I am from Göstling in Austria and I am completing an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk at Bene GmbH in Waidhofen. I have completed an English course at the International house and a three-week traineeship at Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing and TrainingMatchmaker – an online platform founded by my Trainer Christine Watson. Christine is a Chartered Marketer. My workplace for the last few weeks was located on the 6th floor of the Belfast Central Library. I also experienced working remotely at different local cafés and libraries (clients of my host business). In this blog I have written about the learning skills that I have developed during my time in Northern Ireland, my successes, tasks and my overall experience. In my first week I wrote a Learning Plan with Christine – you can have a look at this, my first ever blog, on the TrainingMatchmakter website.

LANGUAGE SKILLS:

In the first week in Northern Ireland, I completed an English Course at the International house in Belfast with Intern Europe. The week was really fun and my fellow Erasmus trainees and I all learned a lot of local slang such as “What´s the Craic?”, which means: “Is anything happening?”. I immersed myself in English language practice, both in written and spoken form. By actively engaging with others and seeking out opportunities for practice, I have observed gradual improvements in my language skills. Moving forward, I remain committed to consistent practice and exploration of new learning avenues to further enhance my English proficiency. So, if you are going to Northern Ireland you should talk to the residents, because you can practice and improve your spoken English and also learn a lot about the culture. 

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WORDPRESS:

WordPress is a web content management system. It is an open-source platform for building websites. It’s user-friendly, offers customisable themes and plugins for added functionality. With built-in SEO features, it’s ideal for personal and business websites alike. I learned on my traineeship how the websites: watsonsmarketing.com and training matchmaker.com both work, they were developed using wordpress, and I had to write different blogs. I found wordpress very easy to use and the back end of the websites that I worked on looked and worked just like Microsoft Word, which I was already familiar with. 

CANVA:

Canva is a graphic design platform that allows users to create a wide range of visual content easily and quickly. With a user-friendly interface and drag-and-drop functionality, Canva offers a variety of design templates, images, icons, and fonts to help users create professional-looking graphics for social media, presentations, marketing materials, and more. It’s widely used by individuals, businesses, and organisations for its simplicity and versatility in design creation.   Thanks to my Trainer Christine who signposted me to free training resources on Canva, they have their own YouTube channel with instructional videos, as well my fellow Erasmus trainee, Anna-Lena, who had already used Canva before, and who kindly agreed to share her knowledge and experience with me, I learned a lot about the platform. On Canva I made my Learning Log Poster, pictured at the top of this blog. I also designed various Certificate templates for Christine to consider using for her training delegates, I also took delegate testimonials and inputted these into canva templates too for business use on social media marketing communications.

INSTAGRAM:

Instagram is a social media platform where users share photos and videos, apply filters, and interact with others. It’s known for its visual focus and is used by individuals, businesses, and organisations to share stories, promote products, and engage with their community. I learned on my traineeship how Instagram works and I made different Stories and Reels. I was told about CapCut and I used this to create a reel of one of our remote work locations – Belfast City Hall. On the Instagram page of Trainingmatchmaker you can see the posts and Reels, that I created and edited from templates already existing..  On the last working day in Belfast, Anna-Lena and I completed a Threads for Business Micro Learning breakfast event at Ormeau Business Park. I learned what Threads is and how I can create a Threads account quickly and easily as well how to post to Threads and the benefits for businesses such as Thread posts appearing within instagram newsfeeds as it is owned by Meta as well as Facebook too.

 

WORKSHOPS AT APPLE:

On the second work day at Watson & Co. Marketing  Anna-Lena and I completed two Apple workshops in Victoria Square:

• Workshop: Recording Video on iPhone
• Workshop: Photography on iPhone

The course was free, because my colleague, Anna-Lena and I are iPhone owners. We learned a lot about the techniques and how to make the photos and videography look more professional. 

PHOTOSHOOTING:

Participating in a photoshoot at Mallusk Enterprise Park was an incredibly interesting and enriching experience. Both Anna-Lena and I had the chance to observe and contribute to the creative process of capturing images. 

Over the time in Belfast, we created a lot of photos of different business people, products and events. Taking the photos was great fun and I was able to learn a lot and I will take a lot with me for my future photography and videography too.

Here is a little insight into my photos:  

       

STORMONT EVENT:

On 20th March, 2024 we had a big Event. This Event was about Celebrating Strategic Marketing in Business for the Northern Ireland Economy. Before the event began, we worked a lot for this Event, we made names cards and Posters. The event was really interesting and we learned a lot.

IRISH CULTURE:

During the first week in Belfast, we went to the following places in Belfast.

• Titanic Museum
• Belfast Castle
• Ulster Museum
• Botanic Garden
• Queen’s University
• Carrickfergus
• Giants Causeway
• Carrick-a-Rede

In the second week we began the three-week traineeship. We  worked from different places, Grove Library, Linen Hall library, 2 Royal Avenue and a lot of coffee shops. My favorite place to work remotely was the Bobbin in the Belfast City Hall, I found it one of the best cafes in Belfast. Anna-Lena and I also drove with Christine to the Mallusk Enterprise Park and took Photos of the Food in the B Social Deli and we edited and published this blog from the Roasty Toasty coffee shop in South Belfast. One weekend, we visited Dublin, where we explored numerous attractions. The food in Dublin is very good and we ate a lot. On a weekend in Belfast, we drove to the Dunluce Castle and on a Sunday we experienced St.Patrick’s Day in Belfast.  St. Patrick’s Day is a cultural and religious holiday celebrated on March 17th, primarily in Ireland and by people of Irish descent worldwide. It honors St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, and commemorates the arrival of Christianity in Ireland.   The day was marked by parades, festivals, wearing green attire, and the display of shamrocks, symbols associated with Irish heritage. It’s a time for celebration, cultural pride, and sharing Irish traditions with others. The coolest thing about our time here was that we often just went out for a beer with our colleagues from Austria after work. The first strangers became friends. We experienced something new every day.  

The inhabitants of Northern Ireland are very friendly people and Belfast is such a beautiful city because of the buildings – they are different to ours – the architecture is more historical. The cultural characteristics of the Irish include above all hospitality, creativity and a great sense of tradition.  Northern Ireland Ireland is known for its leprechauns, shamrocks, beautiful nature and Irish dancing and music. Get an overview of all the things that make the Emerald Isle special: From Black Pudding to Samhain. 

  I would definitely recommend people take up the opportunity to complete an Erasmus traineeship abroad, because you learn so many new things and you see a lot of the world. You also dare to get out of your comfort zone and talk a lot more with strangers. Through such an Erasmus internship, your English skills improve a lot. I would like to say thank you to everyone involved for giving me such a wonderful and unforgettable time.

• Thanks to Bene for the support.
• Thanks to Let’s Walz and Intern Europe for the organisation.
• Thanks to Christine, who taught us a lot and wasn’t annoyed because we didn’t always understand her straight away.
• Thanks to our host mum for the great food and accommodation.

Now it’s back to Austria.

—– Don’t think long – just do it —–