The Erasmus+ placement was a fantastic experience. I enjoyed many aspects of the trip - the work, the people and the culture. I definitely think that my personal skills such as my independence and confidence have benefited greatly from the experience. It’s amazing what you learn about yourself when you’re put in a situation like this - away from home and having to look after your money, your transport arrangements (getting safely from A to B!) and most importantly yourself. I really enjoyed getting a glimpse of French life and a taste of the culture over the last three weeks.
I definitely feel this trip will benefit me going forward. Gaining experience in the Retail Sector in general is a great addition to any CV and so important for my future career path but gaining this abroad is a whole other experience in itself. At times the communication was difficult given the language barrier however we managed and it was definitely for the better as it meant I had to use my French that I learned in GTI. Even though we were busy each day with work and spent our weekends exploring France we still managed to squeeze in plenty of laughs along the way and I have memories I will cherish forever.
I definitely feel this trip will benefit me going forward. Gaining experience in the Retail Sector in general is a great addition to any CV and so important for my future career path but gaining this abroad is a whole other experience in itself. At times the communication was difficult given the language barrier however we managed and it was definitely for the better as it meant I had to use my French that I learned in GTI. Even though we were busy each day with work and spent our weekends exploring France we still managed to squeeze in plenty of laughs along the way and I have memories I will cherish forever.
The Erasmus+ placement was very beneficial to me in a lot of ways. Firstly, it provided me the opportunity to travel abroad and to experience other cultures and learn a bit of French. I worked in a large retail clothing company and this placement gave me the opportunity to work in a team environment allowing me to strengthen my teamwork skills. I learned new skills in customer service which I did not have previously. This skill will enhance my prospects when applying for customer service jobs. I learned an important lesson of the need to package and present your products in an attractive manner to your customers. I also had a practical experience with inventory management and stock taking. It improved my communications skill and allowed me to use my initiative on the job. I also made new friends and improved my social life. Overall, this placement was very beneficial to me.
Nocibe is a perfume and cosmetic store where I completed my work placement. On my placement I learned about the new visual merchandising displays. I got to set them up and make up compositions to display. I also learned how to wrap without using tape which is very useful and not as easy as it looks. The language barrier is hard at times and I did feel this was a challenge but something I worked through. The store is all about team work and it was great to learn all about the importance of this. With this placement I did get to experience French culture and got to visit the cities of Lille and Paris. In the future for me I do feel it will help me with interviews and improving my cv for job opportunities in the future.
I feel I gained confidence and independence while on my Erasmus+ placement. Through the placement I learnt how to look after myself and others and I also felt like I learned a lot of different skills through the placement. For one, I learnt a new language which was French. I also felt that my doing this placement I made a lot of new friends whether they were the people I went over with and also the people I have met while over on the placement. By doing this placement I feel that it had bettered my chances of getting a job as it shows that I have worked in other places other than Ireland. Overall I feel like this Erasmus+ placement has benefited me greatly.
My work placement for the Erasmus+ training period abroad was based in a French Fashion outlet by the name of La Halle who have a number of retail stores throughout France and Belgium. The La Halle brand stock a wide variety of shoes, menswear, womenswear, lingerie, handbags, children's and infant clothing. We had a fabulous host- Madame Sabine Pecqueur, who really took care of our group during our stay.
In terms of my experience, from a language perspective, my French has definitely improved. I had very little before I left but managed to adapt through using the basic French I had learned in GTI, listening to those speaking French around me, working to understand the basic inquiries I would get off customers and learning how to reply to those inquiries as best I could. From working with their In-store merchandiser, Angelina, i've learned some valuable merchandising techniques such as the importance of keeping similar brands aligned, utilising the space of a specific store layout and understanding how sales affected the way brands should be displayed and re-merchandised. The visual merchandising briefs were assigned from Head Office in Paris so it was great to get an insight into the process at La Halle in this area. I have a really keen interest in visual merchandising so I really enjoyed this aspect and in terms of enhancing job prospects in the future, I feel this knowledge and learning will very much contribute to that.
The team in La Halle were extremely helpful and I enjoyed being part of the roster. With limited French/English on both our parts, it was quite hard to maintain a conversation. However, every day we progressed a little more, and became more friendly with each other so it was sad to say goodbye to them after the whole experience.
Embracing and respecting a new culture, meeting new people and taking part in this journey with the other GTI girls that were also on work placement in Bruay-la-Buissière was a lovely experience. We had some great adventures by planning activities together for our weekend days and experiencing cultural cities such as Lille, Paris and Brussels during our time in France. A direct entry into a work placement abroad through the Erasmus+ programme is a super opportunity and one I would recommend to any student to go for. Living and working independently abroad is a fantastic way to increase your professional skills, personal confidence, to learn/improve a foreign language and enhance future employability at home or in another country – all together a win win.
In terms of my experience, from a language perspective, my French has definitely improved. I had very little before I left but managed to adapt through using the basic French I had learned in GTI, listening to those speaking French around me, working to understand the basic inquiries I would get off customers and learning how to reply to those inquiries as best I could. From working with their In-store merchandiser, Angelina, i've learned some valuable merchandising techniques such as the importance of keeping similar brands aligned, utilising the space of a specific store layout and understanding how sales affected the way brands should be displayed and re-merchandised. The visual merchandising briefs were assigned from Head Office in Paris so it was great to get an insight into the process at La Halle in this area. I have a really keen interest in visual merchandising so I really enjoyed this aspect and in terms of enhancing job prospects in the future, I feel this knowledge and learning will very much contribute to that.
The team in La Halle were extremely helpful and I enjoyed being part of the roster. With limited French/English on both our parts, it was quite hard to maintain a conversation. However, every day we progressed a little more, and became more friendly with each other so it was sad to say goodbye to them after the whole experience.
Embracing and respecting a new culture, meeting new people and taking part in this journey with the other GTI girls that were also on work placement in Bruay-la-Buissière was a lovely experience. We had some great adventures by planning activities together for our weekend days and experiencing cultural cities such as Lille, Paris and Brussels during our time in France. A direct entry into a work placement abroad through the Erasmus+ programme is a super opportunity and one I would recommend to any student to go for. Living and working independently abroad is a fantastic way to increase your professional skills, personal confidence, to learn/improve a foreign language and enhance future employability at home or in another country – all together a win win.
Getting to go on work placement in France was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I learnt loads of valuable new skills which will look great on my CV and for future employment. During my time working in France I got to learn about visual merchandising and I also got to express my own ideas on how I felt the products should be displayed which was great as in the future I would love to do some visual merchandising within fashion.
It was also great just to experience working in retail in France and observing their customers buying habits and comparing them to Ireland’s which was really interesting as there were some differences. We got to learn so much about their culture whilst we were over there and we even got the opportunity to travel to Lille, Paris and Brussels, which was great. Another plus from the work placement was learning some French as I hadn’t learnt French before but had always wanted to and now I can say that although I am far from fluent, I have still managed to master a couple of new phrases.
Probably one of the main things that I benefited from this trip was getting to experience what living abroad was like and now I can say that I certainly would feel more comfortable with the idea of living abroad in the future after that experience.
It was also great just to experience working in retail in France and observing their customers buying habits and comparing them to Ireland’s which was really interesting as there were some differences. We got to learn so much about their culture whilst we were over there and we even got the opportunity to travel to Lille, Paris and Brussels, which was great. Another plus from the work placement was learning some French as I hadn’t learnt French before but had always wanted to and now I can say that although I am far from fluent, I have still managed to master a couple of new phrases.
Probably one of the main things that I benefited from this trip was getting to experience what living abroad was like and now I can say that I certainly would feel more comfortable with the idea of living abroad in the future after that experience.