Motivation to Take Part

so interesting; it was in a real-world environment and if something went wrong we’d have to go and fix it. Like if you made a mistake you had someone to answer to. There was someone supervising, but still it was pressurised – hard work, but enjoyable. Seán • In Tenerife we worked with an independent fashion designer. I thought it would be like a normal shop but it was a massive warehouse. There were costume-based props, and everyday wasn’t the same, ’cause some days we might work with feathers, some days with glue guns. From start to finish we would have 4 or 5 different jobs. Creating this costume, we didn’t know what the outcome was gonna be. We’re just doing little bits, bit by bit. The day before the carnival we brought everything we did together – it was massive. I stood by, like – did we actually do this? It’s not an easy thing but it all came together. We had two weeks in the warehouse non-stop apart from maybe weekends. Ellen • I worked on a boat that was doing northern lights tours and whale watching, but I didn’t do well on the boat – four hours on the Arctic Sea. So they just put me in reservations at the ticket desk, dealing with people as they came in. And doing all their emails, the people moaning like, ‘Oh, we didn’t see the whales’ and all that. Grant • I worked in Fiskars; they make those orange-handled scissors that you see everywhere. They make a whole lot of products. They have a factory there and we were just doing a lot of admin work. Kind of random work; they asked us once to interview their employees and see if they’re happy in the company. We were just doing bits and pieces but it was really good. We got a tour of the factory. It was good experience; I enjoyed it. Aoife • I worked for Pernod-Ricard, the second biggest drink distiller in the world. I was working in the main office. I was just doing a range of things, marketing; I went to the biggest whiskey fair in Finland. I was sitting there and people come up to you and ask you questions; you’d have to explain how this was made and basically sell them on the brand and increase their sales for the year. It was class.

Steven Overall, satisfaction with placement organisations among this group was very high, and did not seem to be affected by the organisation type. One exception was Aedín, who felt that her placement in the film department of a vocational college was not representative of real professional life:

• For me it felt like it wasn’t a very realistic work environment, if that makes sense. It’s a vocational school but they produce professional things there. So it wasn’t like working for a company or working in a more professional setting; it was more like half and half. So I felt a bit like, it wasn’t exactly what it would be like if I was working. It was definitely more like working than it was here [in her sending organisation]. But it wasn’t completely what it would be like.

For participants in interviews and focus groups, the principal motivation for mobility was to obtain experience in their vocational area: ‘I wanted to further add to my expertise in the business field’ (Colm), or ‘I wanted to see the challenges that IT professionals face’ (Seán). While many participants had worked part-time while they were in college, none had worked in their vocational area before.

Oisín in particular had struggled to gain a foothold in his chosen profession. He had graduated several years previously with a bachelor’s degree, but had never worked in his field. He characterised his three-month placement in ecology as a ‘last ditch attempt’ to get the experience he needed for employment.