Lier, 27^th July 2019. For the first time one of our scholarship holders had chosen Norway as the country for a work placement abroad. In the south Norwegian town Lier Melanie found a fascinating work placement in the restaurant chain Max Burger, where she learned a lot about the Norwegian environment and the local working culture.  Apart from preparing the dishes her duties also included cleaning the kitchen, washing the work clothes as well as serving the customers. Important aspects like increasing self-confidence, finding new friends and expanding her knowledge of English belong to the seven advantages of the work placement, which she lists at the end of her report.

Marl, 15th July 2019. The online magazine of the Albert-Schweitzer-Geschwister-Scholl Gymnasium reports on a donation in favour of the Elena Bleß Foundation: “Together with their RE teacher Kornelia Langer and the school pastor Laura Kapellner the high-school graduates Janine Lucht, Bianca Weber, and Paul Schaarschmidt handed over the gains of the collection of this year’s graduation service one half each to the Elena Bleß Foundation and the circle of friends of the family library Türmchen. Mrs Bleß personally accepted the cheque for the foundation; the money benefits pupils who want to deepen a foreign language and make experiences abroad, e. g. by a work placement abroad.”

West Malling, 3rd May 2019. After these three weeks I can only say that I would never have thought how much this work placement would enrich me.” With these accompanying words Erik sends us his vivid report on his work placement at a primary school in an English village south east of London. During his work placement Erik took over the role of an assistant teacher and among other things he helped in the subjects of maths, history and art. Apart from the admirable digital facilities of this school a lot of further differences to German primary schools positively caught his eye: the huge football ground, the vegetable garden, the elaborate security system of the school etc. In everyday village life he also got to know and appreciate cultural characteristics like the remarkable courtesy of the English. He also found it very interesting to live with a host family in an Oast house, a tower-like building formerly used for drying hops.

Agen, 23rd March 2019: With the help of the town twinning association Dinslaken/Agen, Janis, too, found a work placement in a hotel restaurant as well as an accommodation. As Janis wanted to give his work placement a language focus, he was mainly employed as a waiter during buffet breakfast and lunch. Already in the morning he could talk with the cook and the other employees in the kitchen, later during the shared lunch also to the director and of course with the numerous restaurant guests when he took the meals to the tables and served coffee. In his report on his work placement Janis emphasises, “For working in the restaurant a high social competence, which means friendliness, command of words etc, is primarily necessary as you talk a lot with people. Furthermore, concentration and coordination are important in order not to muddle up your tasks. For this you need a trained view of the jobs to be taken over.” Even though now he knows that for him a future job in a hotel is out of the question, Janis is definitely sure in one point, “I would recommend a work placement abroad and also repeat it myself as the cultural and verbal exchange is something completely new and exciting.”