Young visitor experiences work in Durham City
- Patrick meets with Marion Ingleby from Durham County Council’s Policy & Planning Department.
A student from Germany has recently spent three weeks in Durham to experience working life in Britain and improve his English along the way!
Eighteen year old Patrick Schreiber from Krefeld in Germany contacted Durham Education Business Partnership about planning his trip. They were able to host his stay and organise valuable work experience in the city. He spent two weeks working with the Assistant Chief Executives office at County Hall and one week with the Connexions service at Claypath.
Patrick was keen to improve his English and thought the best way would be to spend time working with those who speak it as their first language. Patrick said the English teachers in his school were very good, but he has realised that their pronunciation was quite different from the Durham accents!
Jaqui Gardiner, Work Experience Manager at Durham Education Business Partnership said ‘Patrick got in touch with me back in September 2009 and was very keen on coming to the UK. From his emails I got the impression he was highly committed to his education including his English language development, he also studies Chinese and Spanish. He has arranged his own transport and accommodation and I have been able to arrange two excellent work placements opportunities for him. He very kindly brought me a book about Krefeld so I could see there were big differences between his home city and Durham.’
Whilst at County Hall Patrick was able to assist with research projects, summary reports on government policy and translations. Roger Goodes, Head of DCC Policy and Communications said of Patrick’s visit ‘Patrick’s language and communication skills were excellent, it has been a pleasure to have had him working with us’
Working with Connexions Patrick was able to see what help is available here for young people like him and went to along to Durham Sixth Form Centre with the advisors when the A-level results were released. Pat Cummings from the Connexions service had similar good things to say ‘It must have been a challenge for Patrick at times with our regional accents but he coped extremely well. Every task he was given was completed with great efficiency and enthusiasm. We do not often offer work experience but Patrick was a pleasure to work with’.
When the three weeks were over and Patrick returned to Krefeld he had only good things to say about his time in Durham, ‘I didn’t imagine last year that I would get the chance to have a placement in a city with a world class University. Everything has been well organised and the people I have worked with have been very friendly and did not mind repeating themselves for me. This work experience has exceeded my expectations, my English has improved considerably and I have gained a lot of knowledge about British people. It has not been the language or the people that have made me stumble, it was the small things that seem normal for you, it took me three buses to find out I had to put my hand out for it to stop!’
Durham Education Business Partnership arrange the work experience placements for students across the County, if you would like to know more about the service please contact the Work Experience Team on 01325 375959.
