Presentation of the project Educational Tours 

November 23, 2015 - LUISS University Viale Romania, 32 - 9:30 am, Room 305A

If offered work, you would lead groups of students and their teachers, mainly from U.S.A. and Canada, on Educational Tours in Europe. EF markets its tours to teachers who then promote travel in their school and local community. The groups vary in size from about 30 to 50 participants, and may comprise small groups from more than one school or town. Some tours are based in one country, others cover several. On tour, teacher(s) and the Tour Director will work together to ensure a smooth trip. Tour length varies: the shortest last about a week, the average about ten days. In general, tours run during North American school holidays, so typically you would be offered work either side of Easter and/or in June. June is the busiest month.

The job itself is wide-ranging. Its responsibilities include liaison with teachers, students, hotel staff and other suppliers, and EF staff. On a daily basis it involves reconfirming all pre-booked tour arrangements, supervising hotel check-in, leading walking tours, offering suggestions for and organising free-time activities, controlling on-tour payments and paperwork, giving interesting and informative coach commentaries, and on-the-spot problem-solving. Tour Directors usually have at least a month's notice before a tour to prepare. EF has extensive support material available, on-line and in our Regional Offices, but Tour Directors are expected to research independently in order to have sufficient general knowledge. Given the nature of the product, the work is seasonal and offered on a tour-by-tour freelance basis.

As a Tour Director, you would need to be:

Available for at least ten days in March/April and/or June

Enthusiastic about the educational value of travel, particularly for first-timers travelling in groups

Organised enough to handle the detailed logistics of a tour in such a way that when you are with the group you are able to concentrate on making the most of their time

Flexible in dealing with people and problems within a clearly understood framework

Service-minded in all your dealings with EF's customers, suppliers and staff

Knowledgeable about European cities and sights, history, culture and current developments (please note that we book local guides in the main cities, so you are not expected to be an expert)

Professional in the way you represent the company and otherwise conduct yourself on tour

Fluent English, and ideally conversational in at least one other major European language

Fun we expect you to take the job seriously, but also be someone customers enjoy spending time with

Ideally, you should be at least 22 years old. In addition, you must either be an E.U. citizen, or have permission to work and reside in the European Union, whether on a temporary basis as a student or similar, or permanently.

If you are still interested, and believe that you have a genuine motivation to work in the field of educational travel, feel free to attend the conference to have all details of the job position and to give to EF Staff the application at the end.

Should your application be successful, you will be invited to an initial screening, in the form of an interview or selection day that will be held in Rome in November. Successful candidates will then be invited to an EF Training in January.

Satisfactory completion of EF Training is necessary for any subsequent offer of work, but is not a guarantee of work. Further details regarding training will be communicated at interview/selection. Generally, the tours offered to first-season Tour Directors are concentrated in the weeks around Easter and in June; more may be available in July for those who do well. Past experience tells us that the great majority of those who train and who are available for work at peak times are in due course offered tours.

To confirm your attendance please email as follows:

Object: Educational Tours

And your name - surname - email - mobile to Barbara.lodi@ef.com