Learning Plan of Erasmus Trainee Anna-Lena Wippl from Austria

Welcome to my first blog

My name is Anna-Lena Wippl and I am from Lower Austria. There I am in an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk. Now I am in Belfast (NI) to do an traineeship at TrainingMatchmaker.com and Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing, which was founded by Trainer Christine Watson.  This traineeship lasts for 4 weeks and 3 of these weeks are spent working for TrainingMatchmaker under the supervision of Christine.

The office is located at the Central library of Belfast on the 6th Floor called Creative Space. Moreover from the outside, the library doesn’t look like it has got 6 floors. So because on the front side it has got only 2 floors and at the back there are six. Overall that was a little bit confusing at the first day for me.  

What’s also interesting is, that I am doing this traineeship with a friend of mine called Johanna. We both work at the same Host company. 

Monday the 4th of March was our first day at work. Johanna and I met Christine at the office. We also got a welcome pack from her with some sweets, Potato-bread and other foods which are typical for Northern Ireland.

  My Learning Goals:  

Most importantly I am participating on Erasmus in order to improve my English Skills. In writing as well as in speech.

I have previously used visual design tool Canva, but I feel that I can improve so I wish to invest time in learning Canva and practicing Canva for work.

I want to know more about a Marketing company. For example, what are their tasks every day. I am very interested in the marketing section, because in my company in Austria, we haven’t got a marketing department.

I also want to learn how to use my iPhone camera better and make better videos. Moreover an iPhone camera has got a lot of functions and many of them I don’t know how to use properly. That’s why I want to attend the today at Apple courses at the Apple Store at Victoria Square shopping centre in Belfast.  

Finally I also want to know how to do reels on Instagram, but also I wish to improve my social media skills for all that Instagram can provide.  I’ m already good at doing some Stories and posting on Instagram but I want to learn more about using Instagram for the personal use as well as for a company.

 

  About me: 

My name is Anna-Lena Wippl, I am 20 years old, and I am from Lower Austria. There I am doing an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk. Wittur Austria GmbH produces some parts of an elevator. So, it’s very different to a Marketing company. Now I am in my 3rd year of my apprenticeship, and it will complete at the end of August 2024.  

In my free time I like to look after my niece and my nephews. I also like to go horse riding or go hiking with my boyfriend. But what I also love is to meet my friends to socialise.

General facts about my Host – Christine Watson who founded Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing and TrainingMatchmaker.com

Company (Watson and Co. Chartered Marketing) 

Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing is a marketing consultancy and training company established by multi award winning and industry experienced Chartered Marketer Christine Watson in April 2005.

Christine and her team, will work with your business to deliver creative and effective marketing and customer service solutions designed to deliver optimal results. 

Passion, enthusiasm and an abundance of innovative, cost-effective results driven ideas are sure fire every time you come into contact with a Chartered Marketer from Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing. 

Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing Training Services include WorldHost 

Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing provides WorldHost – world class customer service training to customer facing staff in businesses across Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. International delivery is also available for English speaking organisations. 

Over one million customer-facing staff globally have been trained on WorldHost customer service programmes. WorldHost was first developed in Canada to train 40,000 volunteers and front-line tourism staff for the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010. The programme has since been successfully launched in the UK by People 1st, supported by Visit England, and was used to train 200,000 customer-facing staff at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and other world-class events, including the 2014 Ryder Cup, the Commonwealth Games, and the 2015 Rugby World Cup. 

Tourism Northern Ireland endorsed the programme in Northern Ireland with delivery to over 20,000 service professionals in the tourism and retail sectors. 

The WorldHost programme is modern and energetic offering a comprehensive training toolkit and topical DVD and CD case study scenarios. It can be used across a wide variety of industries where the quality of customer service is key to the success of business. 

My colleague Johanna and I were asked to work in the Bobbin coffee shop inside Belfast City Hall – this was so that we could experience working from a coffee shop and also because the NOW Group, founder of the Bobbin recently booked Christine to deliver WorldHost customer service training on one of their work ready programmes. NOW Group supports people with learning difficulties and autism into jobs with a future.

Facts about: Training Matchmaker 

Trainingmatchmaker.com directs people to free or paid online and face-to-face courses. They seek to curate and publish information to inspire individuals to keep learning.

As well as learning opportunities there are also NI trainers that you can find listed on the website.

TrainingMatchmaker.com was founded by my mentor, trainer and Erasmus Host Christine Watson. 

 

What is Erasmus+ 

Erasmus+ is the EU’s programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. 

The 2021-2027 programme places a strong focus on social inclusion, the green and digital transitions, and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life. 

It supports priorities and activities set out in the European Education Area, Digital Education Action Plan and the European Skills Agenda. The programme also 

• supports the European Pillar of Social Rights 
• implements the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027 
• develops the European dimension in sport 

 

Some facts about the company Intern Europe, who facilitated my Erasmus experience in Northern Ireland

Intern Europe is an international team passionate about providing work experience in Belfast, Glasgow and Liverpool. 

In collaboration with European partners and local host companies, they organise traineeships as part of a culture and language experience. 

Johanna and I take part at this traineeship through Intern Europe. In our first week we had an English course at the International House of Belfast, which was also organised by the Intern Europe team in Belfast.