"The best thing you can do is take an internship abroad. It not only gives a great insight into the tourism and hospitality industry, but also an experience of a lifetime," says Kathrine Brinkloev. She has done a three-months' traineeship at the Hilton Hotel in Sheffield, England, as part of her two-year higher education in Hospitality & Tourism Management, specializing in Hotel Management, at Dania Academy in Randers. The internship has given her a taste to experience more of the world. She has fallen in love with Sheffield, so after the summer holidays she is planning to go back: this time to study a one-year top-up of International Hotel Management at Sheffield Hallam University. "The university was responsible for the contact with the hotel and they were very nice and helpful during the internship. They are very committed to their students, and it seems like a really good place to study. Hilton Hotel also told me that if I came back to England, there was a place for me at the hotel, so a study job is possible", says 20-year-old Kathrine Brinkloev.
Work placement project on service level The internship in England gave Kathrine Brinkloev a lot of experiences. She had the opportunity to improve her English skills and the new acquaintances gave the young student a broader cultural perspective. "It gave a glimpse of the city and the English culture, but also of how to define service at a hotel like the Hilton", says Katherine, who got a lot to think about during her time at the hotel in relation to the Danish service level. So much that she has written her work placement project in Dania on the level of service at a Danish hotel compared to the service in Sheffield and the cultural differences that can form the basis for it. "In Sheffield people are always polite, using Mr., Mrs. or Miss. In Denmark, we hardly ever use Mr., Mrs. or Miss, but it should perhaps be done more in especially the hotel industry, where guests are international and have different cultural backgrounds", says Kathrine in one of the conclusions of her project.
Full support from home
She believes that as a student, you should consider going abroad if you have the guts and nothing to tie you to home. Kathrine has a boyfriend, and when the talk at the beginning of the AP study fell on internships abroad, it seemed that three months would be too long time to be away from him and the family. But it slowly dawned on her that it was abroad, Hilton and Sheffield, she wanted to do her internship, and she had the full support of both her boyfriend and parents: "You have to make up your mind whether you can handle being away from home in that way. The first month was hard because everything was new, and you just have to get into it all, but the next month was much better. It is important to seek others, to be open and outgoing, because you have to make contacts and new friends ", says Kathrine. Her boyfriend agrees that she should go back to Sheffield again after the summer. For while she goes to Sheffield for a year, he is going to Singapore for half a year in connection with his studies. "We are both very adventurous and we will not stand in the way of each other, although it is expensive to visit each other. He wants to take his Master's abroad later, and at that time I will be a graduate and can go with him ", says Katherine, who is looking forward to starting her studies abroad in September. "It will be really cool. I'm really excited", she says with a smile.