FIVE tourism students will be going to France shortly on a work experience placement.

Funded by the Erasmus+ programme, the students will spend two weeks working at a French Wine Chateaux or in Tourist Information Services in and around the pretty village of Paulliac, near Bordeaux.

They will be travelling in style by train, plane and automobile before staying in a small hotel near the marina.

This is thanks to the Erasmus+ programme, and also to the staff in the Travel and Tourism department at Coleg Menai who successfully applied for this funding.

Two of the students will be offering their services at various Tourist Information Services around the area, and the other three will work at different Wine Chateaux, such as the fairytale Pichon Baron Wine Chateaux. As part of the package, they will complete an on-line 20-hours ‘Learn Direct’ French for Beginners course at Coleg Menai before they leave the UK so that they have enough working French to see them through a typical working day.

The students going on this placement are Cadi Llywelyn from Llan Ffestiniog, Catrin Baker from Talwrn, Lowri Hughes from Porthmadog, Erin Jones from Brynsiencyn and Alicia Goddard from Benllech.

Cadi said: “My ambition is to work as cabin crew on an airline, so the more work experience I can put on my CV the better.

“I also work part time at Gwesty’r Seren in Ffestiniog where I do housekeeping, serving food, bar work and front of house – so a bit of anything and everything really. It will be interesting and fun to see how this compares to working in France. I am so excited!”

Sharon Jones, who teaches travel and tourism, added: “As well as giving the students an advantage when it comes to applying for jobs, this trip is also about personal development. This will stand them in good stead, not only in terms of work experience, but also personal development, teamwork and confidence skills, learning a foreign language and having fun in the process.”