Work Experience in Toulouse

In December, forty-six members of the Lower Sixth spent 10 days in France just before the Christmas holidays, completing half of the 'Dialogue' exchange scheme. The main objective of the trip was to carry out five days of work experience. This covered all sorts of businesses, including helping out in schools and libraries, serving and stacking shelves in newsagents and preparing prescriptions in pharmacies.

Most of our students agreed that working abroad and having to communicate in a foreign language was an invaluable experience and it helped those who are studying French at AS Level tremendously with their understanding of the language. Many of us were obliged to speak French all the time, since several of the staff and the parents of our correspondents had a very limited knowledge of English. Many of us had the opportunity to visit the Lycée Victor Hugo, where we had a taste of French school life.

The town where most of us stayed and in which the Lycée was situated is called 'Colomiers' and is only about ten minutes' drive from Toulouse. The Pyrenees are in easy reach as well as Cité de l'Espace and Aerospatiale, the centre of the French aviation industry.

Here are some personal opinion from members of the group.

Luke

"I worked at a company, specialising in office management software.... I checked the English manuals to make sure that there were no errors. There were many lessons that I learnt, e.g.. learning new French computer jargon words....It was a great chance to experience French culture"

James

"I worked in a college, mainly in the office or in reception, but then shadowing teachers, and working with children with learning difficulties..... I learnt plenty of colloquial French, and how to deal with children and their discipline.....It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, thank you!"

Will

" My placement included reading to groups of French school children......The skill I learned was the ability to converse with a varying range and variety of people, I also gained an insight into how a library is run....this trip improved my linguistic confidence, listening and oral skills and also it encouraged me to think on my feet....It was really enjoyable....."

Matthew

"My French was greatly improved just by having to listen to the customers in general"

Will

"I found out how to get about on French public transport as I travelled daily by myself on bus then train"

Tom

"During the week I worked in a travel agent called Voyage Actua. I worked on the front desk and during the week went into the town to hand out leaflets"

Henry

"I feel confident now that I could do further work abroad"

Sam

"Very beneficial and also highly enjoyable, at the same time it was useful for improving my French and also interesting to see cultural the differences"

Anthony

"I learnt how the French tax system works, that specific to the company and to the general income earner"

Charles
"I practised and developed my interpersonal skills through interacting with my co-workers"

Richard

"I devised a questionnaire on the free buses around Toulouse...asked around 60 or 70 people...then spent the next day analysing the results"

Oliver

"Worked with French pre-school and infant school children and I greatly increased my knowledge of the French education system"

Mohammed

"I would highly encourage people to participate in this programme because it was a great experience and my written, speaking, reading and listening skills in French have improved significantly"

Anthony

"It was interesting to immerse oneself in a global consortium and to observe cross-border collaboration, and i learnt a lot of business terms in French"