The Spanish experience

My name is Annu. I study marketing and international business at Business School Virrat in Pirkanmaa Polytechnic - University of Applied Sciences. I will graduate as a BBA- Bachelor of business administration in the spring of 2006.

I started my studies in autumn 2002. I was interested in marketing and international business programme, because I have always been interested in the internationalisation and the cross-cultural relationships.

International Education

During my studies I have tried to maximise my international experience and that’s why I have been studying abroad the major part of my carrier. I have been focused on the Spanish-speaking world because I love the language and the culture. In the fall of 2003 I was on student exchange at the EAE - Business School in Barcelona, Spain. My studies at EAE Barcelona were conducted in English and therefore I improved also my Business English. I studied with a very advanced level team and I could enjoy high-level teaching. At the same time I practiced my Spanish in everyday life and during Spanish lessons. Before I finished with my studies in Barcelona my international coordinator informed me about the opportunity to continue my internationalisation and in the spring semester 2004 I studied in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the programme “Leading the Way to Success in Latin America”.

After coming back from Argentina the Spanish speaking world had already become quite close to me and therefore it felt natural to continue in that way. So I went to Madrid, Spain, from where I got the Erasmus studying place. I studied there the full academic year 2004-2005 in UAM – Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. I see my international pathway as a great and important experience in the global business world and I wanted to continue with this experience.

From theory to practice

After the Erasmus year in Madrid I was still missing the practical training period. That’s why I was so happy I got a placement over the CIMO to do the practical training period in Travel Work Barcelona from September 2005 to December 2005.

Travel work is a Spanish company, whose aim is to provide to young people of the European Union the opportunity to have an international experience, better understanding of different cultures, and a chance to improve their language skills. The clients are mostly Spanish students. Travel work offers them various work experience and practical training options in various countries. That’s why I got the great opportunity to work in the International environment where all language skills were very useful.

I enjoyed working in Travel Work because there I could see how the things I studied in theory work in practice. I got a great experience of marketing research and marketing planning, customer service, administration tasks and beside all this my command of Spanish increased a lot.

Good experiences

I don’t know how would it be without being abroad, but as a summary I could say that during the exchange studies I have learned one new language and I have improved a lot another one. Living abroad has opened my eyes and I see many things now in a totally different way. I feel I have grown from both the professional and human point of view.

I warmly recommend spending an exchange period by working or studying abroad because these experiences give the new perspectives.

Annu Harju

[Lisätty 11.1.2006 | MN]