Showing posts with label host company. Show all posts
Showing posts with label host company. Show all posts

Tuesday, 13 January 2015

8th Anniversary of Almond Vocational Link Plymouth


This January we have a very good reason to celebrate, it has been just over 8 years since Almond Vocational Link opened it's doors for the first time.


Since then we have met hundreds of wonderful students, work placement providers and host families. We have also managed to gather a great team of individuals who work very hard every day to ensure that everything runs smoothly. You can find out more about them all here 

It has been a very successful 8 years for Almond, our Plymouth English Language School has grown and is now offering courses for local foreign speakers. We established a new Plymouth Language Cafe which helps foreign speakers to improve their English and enables them to integrate better. 

In the near future we are hoping to build on this experience and expand our English Language services even further with a new business venture coming in 2015. 

We would like to sincerely thank you all for supporting us over the years and continuing to name Almond Vocational Link your preffered KA1 and KA2 Erasmus+ project partner for the UK. 

If you are seeking UK partner to work with on your Erasmus+ KA1 or KA2 project, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Our European Project Manager Mrs Janet Wonnacott janetw@almondvoclink.co.uk  is always happy to answer your inquiries. Please take a look at some of the projects we took part in and don’t forget to read the Testimonials left by our project partners, students and University Erasmus+ Coordinators.

To find out more about our services please visit our website






Tuesday, 3 June 2014

Top 10 reasons why your business should become a host company

1. We are a small, non profit company that provides personalised services.

We care for both students and companies that work with us. What this means is, that we will not place anyone in your company, who does not meet the criteria and lacks relevant skills and knowledge. The students have weekly feedback meetings in our office, which means we are always up to date.  

2. The service is free of charge to your business.

It simply cost you nothing to have one of our students helping you. The participants receive their funding through European Commissions funds for educational projects like Erasmus+. 

3. Universities from across Europe contact us to organise work placements for some of their top students. 

The participants go through a complex application process and interviews in order to select the right and motivated candidates.

4. Having one of our students means there is extra help on hand. 

Yes they will need help and training from your existing team, but they are willing to learn and motivated.This is a fantastic opportunity for them to see how English firms operate and they would love to learn from you. The students can prove to be a very valuable help to your business during busy times and can fulfil simple tasks as well as be given more ambitious projects to accomplish.

5. Expand your business.

Have you ever thought about expanding and marketing your services to other EU countries?  Having one of our students as a part of your marketing team can help you with that. After all, they are the market experts on their own countries and can help your team gather relevant contacts or help with choosing the most suitable marketing strategies. 

6. We are flexible

We ask for all students to work 35hrs per week. We do understand however, that this is not always possible. The participants do not have to stay in the office for the whole time. They can accompany you to relevant meetings (networking, business, meeting suppliers, clients etc.) or be assigned personal projects to accomplish at home or in field ( market research, web design, database analysis etc.) 

7. You are the boss.

We will contact you if we have a student who we believe could benefit from a placement with you and contribute to your company's progress. You will be sent a CV and we will also inform you of any relevant information gathered during the Skype interview. After this you decide. You are also responsible for the job description and deciding on how much independence you will give to the student. This can change in time and you might feel like increasing their responsibilities after the initial training, it is all up to you.









8. We want to hear from you.   

The students have weekly feedback meetings in our office, which means we are always up to date on how are they doing. Equally, we are very interested to know how are you finding it? What is your opinion on the student's work? Are there any problems? Do you have any questions about the placement? We are available to talk Monday to Friday 8am-5pm, so you can pop in, give our office a call or email us, it's up to you.

9. The length of work placements varies as does the type and age of students we host in Plymouth.  

We work on various European projects. Our students usually come for anything between 2 weeks and 6 months thought the whole year. They can be in Vocational Training, University under graduates, post graduates, graduates, mature students, people currently seeking employment or trying to return to employment after a long period of time. Their age is usually between 18 and 55 and experience can vary.

10. If you are interested, please ask.

Good quality host companies are something, we always seek. If you already had a browse through our website but think we don't deal with the areas of work that you provide, please get in touch. We receive many requests daily from keen partners for different work placements. Some of them are quite flexible positions, others in specific areas of study like laboratory analyst , technicians, microbiologists, electricians, mechanical engineers and many more. 

For more information about our services, please visit www.almondvoclink.co.uk