Weekly reflective questions (Week 2)

Week 2

2. Describe the country where you do your internship. What does it look like, how is it to live and work there, how would you describe the inhabitants. What are the differences with the Netherlands?

Qatar is a small country in the middle-east. It is not that well-known country in the world, but in 2022 It will be one of the most popular countries and you will hear a lot about it on  TV.
Because in 2022 the worldcup will be in Qatar.

The weather is wonderful here; the temperature is between 30 and 33 degree.

It is a multi-cultural country. You find a lot of people here from different backgrounds, which are working/studying or living here. It is a wonderful country to work at. A person who has a European passport earns more than Qatari people or other nationality. It is an expensive country, especially rent is very high.

In public business Arabic women have to wear abaya and Sheila, but in private company they can wear what ever they want to. But you won’t see people here wearing tops or short skirts.

The inhabitants are very kind, especially when they know you are a tourist here. They help you a lot. They are very open and helpful.

There is a huge difference with the Netherlands. The weekends here are on Friday and Saturday. If you are working in a private company then you might work in the weekends as well.  In the Netherlands every employee should have a contract. But here it is not necessarily to have contracts. The important difference is here they don’t pay TAX’s in the Netherlands we do.

Weekly reflective questions (week 1)

Week 1

1.       What is the name, size, and location of the business/organisation of your site?

The name of the company is Cornerstone Language and Leaning Centre. It is a very small company. It is also a new company. They started up and runed this company in September 2010.

The company is located in airport road in a huge building. The building called IBQ and they have hired a whole floor. Also in this building you find a lot of business. Each one has its own floor. It is in Doha in Qatar.

I am very lucky to do the internship there, because they don’t offer any internship position, but I might work there after graduation, that’s why they allowed me working there. In the future I want to startup my own business, because this is a small and new busy, that helps me to see how to run a business.

Job description:

I will be manager assistant and will go to meetings with the manager and see how he mange things and manage employees. Beside that I will also do the accountancy of the company with the accountant.  Also I will help other colleagues and will do the marketing tasks.

Weekly activity journal (week 1)

Weekly activity journal		20-03-2011/26-03-2011
		Date: Sunday - Saturday
Students name	Sara Abdalla	Total hours this week
Supervisor's name	Rafif Abdullah	56
Company name	Cornerstone Language and Learning Centre	Total hours of work experience
Company's location	.Qatar	until this date
		56 of 480

the boxes below are just a format, enlarge them and describe your activities in detail
Sunday		Monday
date: 20/03/2011	total hours8 hours:	date: 21/03/2011	total hours:8
My first working day also it is the first day of the week. I started later than the rest of my class, but I will work in weekends to cover the hours. First day I got an introduction and a lot of information and the company and about what they offer. Also I met all the staff and we had lunch together. Beside that I worked together with a college, we got the task to do the registration of the people who applied for the course and send them an e-mail about it.		2nd day I went to the meeting and made notes of it and mailed the notes to the staff. Also I attended some classes; just to know them way they are giving the course. I have attended sales course and management course, but also English course for kids in the age of 6 till 9.
Tuesday		Wednesday
date: 22/03/2011	total hours8	date: 23/03/2011	total hours:8
I had to give a feedback about the courses they gave yesterday and also about the using materials for the course. I had to compare them to the course materials of my first internship. Because I did my first internship at a training company.		Today I sat with the accountant and we went through accountancy of the company and I got a lot of information about it and learned new things.
Thursday		Friday
date: 24/03/2011	total hours8	date: 25/03/2011	total hours: 8
I got the marketing task today. I had to make phone calls to companies and mailed a lot of companies/schools and universities. To tell them we do offer a lot of courses.		I worked at the reception today. Had to receive students and prepare the course also I did also the post and read it. I sent a lot of e-mails to customers who asked had enquiries about the courses.
Saturday
date: 26/03/2011	total hours:8
The last day of the week. We didn’t do a lot. I had meeting with my supervisor about the week and if I liked/disliked working there. Also they are planning to start-up new business (event) they asked me if I would like to attend the meetings about it and see how a real business starts f. they are not sure about the business still negotiation about it. But I can help them with writing business plan and follow the business.		Supervisor's signature:  Supervisor's comments: