University internship abroad

Business communications, Business Culture, Student placements, , ,

How will an overseas University internship boost your career prospects?

In an increasingly competitive market, many students are looking for work experience in addition to their academic studies. An internship gives students the opportunity to put the theory they have learnt into practice and gain the experience of how real-life organisations are run and the challenges they may face.

Whilst it will be a lot different to the lifestyle that many students will be used to, the hard work and long hours are likely not only to give you an experience of professional employment, but also improve your C.V. therefore making you more attractive to prospective employers.

An internship in your home country is great, but an internship in a different country is a totally different thing. Out of your comfort zone and away from family and friends, the idea at first can be daunting; though many who embark upon this experience learn new and interesting things, gain a unique perspective and broaden their horizons.

Not only will you get the chance to meet new and different people whilst experiencing a different culture to your own, you will get the opportunity to pick up a different language – another way of making yourself a more attractive recruit. Internships are a great way to make yourself stand out but an internship abroad shows employers you can work under pressure in a totally different environment, whilst promising you a real memorable experience!

For more information go to http://www.i-to-i.com/overseas-internship-career.html

Emerging Economies

Blog, Business Culture, , ,

Putting you in touch with an ‘’Emerging Europe’’

passport 2 trade
Reaching Europe

Why not allow your business to benefit from several markets with millions of consumers? – All of which are only a couple of hours away in ‘’Emerging Europe’’. Why target those markets which are further away when you can focus on those which are closer, less risky and much easier to penetrate! There are opportunities in a variety of sectors from Energy, Infrastructure, Security and Defence, Retail and many more.

Some more developed than others, ‘’Emerging Europe’’ consists of nine emerging economies: * Austria * Bulgaria * Croatia * Czech Republic * Hungary * Poland * Romania * Slovakia * Slovenia

Benefits of doing business in Emerging Europe for UK businesses:

* Only a short distance from the UK, reasonable flight prices mean that business connections can be made, especially for those SME’s seeking low cost travel arrangements.

* Emerging Europe provides a range of markets, from developed to developing, but all have the long-term potential for growth.

* Be risk averse and do business in a country which is EU regulated, most of the markets are and are therefore much less risky than developing markets beyond Europe.

For more information on ‘’Emerging Europe’’ and how your business can get help see the UK Trade and Investment website below. http://www.ukti.gov.uk/export/howwehelp/item/394780.html

What are the cultural differences online?

Business Culture, Social media

As part of Passport to Trade 2.0 we surveyed over 1500 individuals in 31 European countries examining cultural differences online. In particular, participants were asked about their use of social media. Our research suggests that increasingly social media is making us into global citizens and the cultural barriers are decreasing and are less evident amongst the younger netizens.

Some cultural differences online

Respondents from businesses were more vocal about their cultural differences. They highlighted cultural differences in issues such as attitudes to

  • Humor
  • Trust
  • Ability to learn about the individual
  • Challenges in mixing of personal and professional identity
  • Different approaches to customer feedback online.

No cultural differences online

However, students did not see any major cultural differences, which suggests that the new generation of consumers are less concerned about the national borders and cultures.

Most popular social networks

The most popular social network used was identified as Facebook. However, business users prefer to use LinkeIn and students use YouTube as their second most popular network.

Do you agree?

Share your views about your social media experience with us – do you agree that there are any cultural differences online?

www.facebook.com/passporttotrade2

twitter.com/Passport2Trade

European Countries – European culture

Business communications, Business Culture, , ,

I came across this website when searching for differences in European culture.

It does outline some differences such as the food, the politics, the education but what I found more interesting, and more fun, was it had a list of all the European countries and when you press on a country it has various facts about that country, some of them random, some quirky, some quite useful for when you come across Christiano Ronaldo and can congratulate him for his people [The Portuguese] being the first colonial power to abolish slavery.

Did you know that Czech people are the heaviest consumers of beer in the EU, the Czech Republic also has the most Hospital Beds per EU inhabitants. Coincidence?

It also has sections about the Economy, History and the basics such as population and capital city.

On the home page you can also access lots of other articles such as Gastronomy, History, Science and popular articles. For instance one of the popular articles trending at the moment is “The origins of of red hair” Along with “Diseases, traits and conditions SNP’s” and “Best restaurants in Lyon, Berlin, Bruges”.

So you can see this is a wealth of information in one place and if you find a topic that’s a little bit dry you’ll be sure to come across one which will be a little humorous and put you back in the mood to read on about the cultural history of Europe.

You can also follow them on twitter: @Eupedia

http://www.eupedia.com/

Social Media Technology- DIY Marketing

Blog, Social media, ,

Are you interested in increasing your virtual presence on the web. Don’t have the money to pay an SEO or digital marketing company to do it for you. If you have access to social media technology, why don’t you have a go at DIY online marketing?

Tools to do the job.
Pile of tools to build your blog.

 

If you use this guide created by Mr Andrew Kinsey a professional SEO, you could help yourself establish some credible popularity on the interest and save yourself the expense of having someone else do it for you.

If you have a basic understanding of how the internet works, you should be able to follow this simple guide and come up with some modest ideas on how to market your content more successfully.

It gives you some neat tips on what software could be useful, how to measure your social media campaign, some cheeky ways of getting other people to help increase your campaign without them realising and the important of a consistent web presence such as posting blogs.

Ideal for any part time social media enthusiast. For more information check out:

http://seoandy.com/content-strategy/three-diy-online-marketing-strategies/