This year, Mr. Brandt who has organized the exchange in the past, gave us the opportunity to complete a work placement in Torquay. He did this through The Training Partnership Ltd. UK (TTPL). TTPL offers many international students the opportunity to work and study in Great Britain.

From March 14th through 24th, 10 students of the Kaiser-Karl-Schule were working and living inTorquay / Devon in Southwest England. On the first day an employee of TTPL welcomed us and took us to our work placements. Most of us were working in cafés or schools. We were all really excited, because most of us have never been to Britain before and we had no experience working in a foreign country either. But fortunately, every company was very kind and did their best to integrate us students into their businesses.

The majority of us were working from Monday to Friday with a break on Thursday afternoon. On Thursdays, we met up with other foreign students and trainees. This was a great opportunity to meet new people. Most of TTPLs trainees are from Spain and are usually working in Great Britain for a longer period of time than us. During our stay we lived together with a host family. To host foreign students and trainees is big business in Britain, e.g. the host family where I stayed with Cara and Klara hosted 5 students at the same time and they also built new rooms to host even more students. That really surprised us. Our host families were very kind and gave us a lot of freedom. They were always easy to talk to and open to chat.

 

At the weekend, and at the end of work, we were mostly in the town to go shopping, go bowling or even to play paintball. In general, nobody of us had any problems during our stay, but for some of us it was really strange that you have to wink at the busses so that they stop. In addition, we were surprised that the punctuality of the busses is even worse than in Germany.

In conclusion we can say that everyone of us was really satisfied with this short stay in Torquay. Even though the culture is not that different to Germany’s, we have learned something new about England and we are really thankful for this opportunity. We would recommend this experience to every student, and we also want to thank Mr. Brandt for his strong support, the Verein der Freunde und Förderer der KKS for its donations, and TTPL for its organisation.

 

René