2017 Business Excellence Awards

76 Acquisition International - Business Excellence Awards 2017 Best for Educational Projects 2017 City Travel Review Motion Placements is a UK registered company which runs a project called CityTravelReview, and partners with a German company called Curso Media based in the capital city of Berlin. City Travel Review organises study/ working gap projects for young people that combine cross cultural language training with creative team working research projects within Berlin, Edinburgh, Madrid, Lyon, London, and Barcelona. Jeremy discusses the project in more detail. “At Motion Placements, we have been running projects such as CityTravelReview for around 10 years and the projects we create are study working learning experiences for young people. Our customers are mainly between the ages of 18-30 and are people that want to combine education with a fun team working experience to gain the opportunity to take part in something they may never get the chance to do again. We bring young people together to learn a language and create an online published travel guide at the city the project takes place. Each project runs from three weeks up to three months. The main aim is for young people to gain a massive educational working experience in a stimulating environment and a chance for them to use their newfound skills in a real life setting. “Before we begin a new project we have to conduct a huge amount of research and there are a number of questions that we need answered before organising a project. The first question we ask ourselves is if the potential project is going to be beneficial to all parties involved and is this project going to be worthwhile for all people involved? To City Travel Review, a Motion Placements Ltd project, provides opportunities to integrate work, travel and formal education. We spoke to Jeremy Maki to learn more. Company: Motion Placements Ltd (CityTravelReview Projects) Contact: Jeremy Maki Contact Email: [email protected] Address: The Old school, Five head, Taunton, TA3 6PQ, UK Phone: 0131 208 2741 Website: www.citytravelreview.co.uk BE170088 answer this, each year we do our best to listen to our customers and see exactly what we are doing right and to address the areas we need to either change or put further work into. It is not just about listing these things but also about taking the action and following up whether a particular issue has been resolved in a timely manner. In order to provide the quality of service that clients require, Jeremy has built a team of dedicated staff who he believes are critical to the firm’s success. “Staff are the ultimate reason why our projects continue. Without them then we would have no projects. We put our full trust in the staff and give them the authority to make their own decisions when doing their particular job. We try to always add humour and create a playful environment. The team compromises of individuals all with skills in either recruitment, media, Journalism, education or creative backgrounds. Having skills in these particular areas help us a great deal running a successful organisation on a daily basis. “Overall, our main focus has always been on quality. Each year we grow our projects however we never risk the quality when growing and we only believe in growth as long as we can maintain or increase quality simultaneously. We have to monitor all of the steps we take in our strategy and work to set deadlines which must be met each week. All members of staff have an action plan and all know what has been achieved and what the next step is. We all need to have an understanding of who is responsible for what and why we are concentrating on a particular task at a particular moment in time.