Learning plan of Erasmus Trainee Nadine Nipko from Germany

  My name is Nadine and I will complete my four-week traineeship in Belfast, Northern Ireland.   The traineeship started on the 1^st of October at Trainingmatchmaker which was created by Watson and Co. Chartered Marketing founder Christine Watson. In the first week my trainer Christine asked me to create a personal training plan blog to detail the learning goals which I would like to achieve during the traineeship.

 

Learning goals

English skills

First of all, I would like to improve my English skills. I already had the opportunity to live abroad for a longer period of time in places such as New Zealand, Sydney and Thailand, but I have never worked outside of my home country – Germany before. During the traineeship with TrainingMatchmaker.com and Watson and Co. Chartered Marketing in Northern Ireland I would like to strengthen my English writing and speaking skills.

Culture

I want to get know a new culture and a different daily working life. Of course I would like to see as much as I can of Belfast and Northern Ireland and I am also looking forward to experiencing the beautiful nature that this country has to offer. I have some goals on my bucket list e.g. the Titanic museum and the Giant’s Causeway.

Photography and Video skills

I am really interested in learning how to take good photos and videos and how to edit them after. For that I would like to join some free Today at Apple courses at the Apple store in the Victoria Square. I discovered these from my research on the section of the trainingmatchmaker website: ‘find a course’.

Social media

I would like to acquire new skills in the social media marketing area and I am looking forward to doing some of the free online sessions listed on Trainingmatchmaker. It is really interesting for me to see how you can run a business Instagram account and I’d like to learn what is important when using instagram for business. My trainer Christine – a Chartered Marketer – told me how important hashtags are and so I want to learn more about the use of hashtags and how I can find the perfect one (or more) for each post. I will strengthen this skill by posting a number of stories and tiles (instagram squares) for the Watson and Co. Chartered Marketing business account on Instagram – you will also likely see contributions from me on the Trainingmatchmaker business instagram account.

Google local guide

Before the traineeship I didn’t know anything about google local guides. But now I think it’s really cool to become a local guide – a contributor on Google maps and to share my pictures with the whole world. During the traineeship I would like to achieve the ‘Expert Photographer badge’ 4^th level (with 250 points – to put this into context each photo I contribute will reward me 5 points). To achieve this I need to contribute 100 photos of at least 25 locations and achieve 100,000 views on my photos so the sooner I begin the more likely I am to be successful at this ambitious challenge.

WordPress

Wordpress is another tool which is  important for the traineeship. I didn’t hear about this platform before, but it is relevant given that both watsonsmarketing.com and trainingmatchmaker.com websites are both built on this platform. That’s why I want to learn how it works and how I can upload my own blogs to the website and the internet.

Canva

I am looking forward to having the opportunity to use canva for business. It’s a nice tool to create your own graphic-designs. Throughout the traineeship I would like to improve my skills in graphic-design by using canva and there’s a free course on canva by canva that I hope to complete to help me with my work deliverables.

About me

My name is Nadine and I am 21 years old. I live in Germany and currently I am doing an apprenticeship as a marketing communication clerk at the company “Stroer” which is mainly known for Out of Home Marketing solutions. In the future I would like to study business administration with the major subject “Marketing”. In my free time I enjoy meeting my friends, playing guitar and I love to travel. I am really excited about the Erasmus traineeship, to work abroad and to get to know a new country and culture.

About Erasmus

Erasmus (European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) is a Higher Education exchange programme for students, teachers and institutions, run in Germany by Arbeit und Leben Hamburg who have worked with Intern Europe in Belfast to find me my accommodation and traineeship opportunity. Basically, it’s a chance for universities and students across 33 countries to mingle, learn new skills and expand their horizons. Over two million students have done Erasmus since it first started in 1987. Of course it isn’t all about socialising; Erasmus gives students the chance to study, do a work placement or work as a language assistant in another European country during their time at school. You don’t have to be a language student to get involved either; as long as your university or school offers Erasmus for your subject, you can do it. There are different kinds of Erasmus – you can stay abroad for few weeks, few months or for a year. I decided to stay here for four weeks. I think the Erasmus programme is a perfect way to get know a new culture and a different daily working life. It was an amazing experience and I think everyone should take this chance.