DkIT’s Students Participate in International Team Building
Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) recently welcomed home 2nd year students from the Institute’s International Tourism Management course. These students embarked on the annual weeklong Intensive educational experience in IUT Lens, Université d'Artois in Northern France to participate with French and Portuguese students in an Erasmus + short mobility project.
This was a jam-packed week for the DkIT students as they got straight down to work following initial team building exercises. Six groups were created for team building and they consisted of Irish, Portuguese and French students. Each group had to create a bespoke city break in Northern France to include marketing strategies, sustainable practices, and industry insights – culminating in a final 30-minute presentation to a jury of three lecturers. Buoyed up and boosted by the generous offerings of coffee, croissants, pain au chocolat and baguettes, the students from DkIT did the college proud and produced excellent presentations.
A mid-week cultural day was welcomed by all. The day began with a visit to Cité des Électriciens where a guide led the students through the history of ‘les courons’, the miners’ villages and the geography Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, now a UNESCO recognised heritage site. This visit truly helped the students to understand the proud humility of the miners who worked there, and by extension the passion of those who follow the local RFC Lens football team. Several renditions of the rousing chorus of ‘Les Courons’ were sung!
Then it was onto Notre Dame de Lorette and the site of the Battle of Artois during WW 1. Students got to view the architecturally spectacular ‘Ring of Remembrance’ which commemorates all those who died there, regardless of nationality. The day culminated in a visit to Louvre Lens museum where the students were fortunate to be in the presence of Johannes Vermeer’s painting ‘The Lacemaker’ which was on temporary loan from the Louvre in Paris.
Helen Howley and Vicky Leahy, the DkIT lectures who organised the trip said
“This excursion was such a great learning experience for the DkIT students, we’d like to thank all the students who participated in the project; the French and Portuguese lecturers Florence and Manuel for their enthusiasm and support; Virginie at the IUT Lens; Noreen Carney, International Office Manager at DkIT and Kevin Burns, Head of Hospitality Department. Bien favour to Damon, Margarita, Michaela, Radka, Sylvie and Vanessa. We were delighted at the end of the week that all our students had such a fantastic cultural experience and an even greater appreciation of what it means to work in an international team”.
