Loughborough College students are spending a month with some of Italy’s leading tourist businesses to boost their workplace skills.
The four-week placements in restaurants and hotels in historic Sorrento, in the Bay of Naples, are part of the College’s Hospitality and Catering and Travel and Tourism courses.
This is the seventh year Loughborough College students have been offered the opportunity at no cost to live and work in the southern Italian town, experiencing a different culture and doing some sightseeing on the trip, fully funded by the Leonardo da Vinci programme.
Libby Machin, who is studying for her Level 3 BTEC Diploma in Travel and Tourism, has a reception position at the five star Grand Hotel La Favorita in the heart of Sorrento.
“I have worked in lots of customer service roles part-time in the UK but I am hoping to travel with my career so to have the chance to live in Italy and work in a hotel of this standard for a month will be such valuable experience.”
Kara Bowman, who also studies Travel and Tourism at Loughborough College, is working at the Hotel Regina, in the old town of Sorrento and overlooking the beaches of San Francesco.
“I am working five days a week in the hotel alongside language lessons, which build on the ones we had in College ahead of the trip. It’s fantastic for my confidence and my independence.
“We also get to visit an ice cream factory and make gelati and a local farm where we get to prepare and cook food we have picked and harvested and there are trips to see the sights and to go bowling or to restaurants.”
Shreena Chohan is working in a Sorrento travel office. “I can speak French, Italian and Gujerati as well as English and I am Assistant Manager in an Asian bridal shop at home so I have quite a bit of experience to draw on. I am also helping with design and content on the tourism office website.
“I can be shy in new situations but I think this is a real turning point for me. If I can go overseas without my family to a brand new place and work with a whole new group of people and be dealing with strangers every day I can do anything!”
Simon Smith, Loughborough College Programme Leader for the Level 2 Diploma in Travel said: “There is an outstanding range of placements for our students in some of Sorrento’s top establishments.
“Some students have so impressed their employers in past years they have been offered a job.”
To find out more go to http://blogs.loucoll.ac.uk/sorrento/