Goodbye Judith, see you again soon

22 November 2011

Auf weidersehn, Judith Dreher

Southdowns say goodbye to Burstner intern as she heads back to Germany

Auf weidersehn to Judith Dreher.

In December, Burstner intern Judith Dreyer will be saying auf weidersehn to Southdowns as she returns to her home in Renchen, South Germany after a four month stint working with the sales team at our Portsmouth Motorhome Centre.

Keen to improve her English, 20-year old Judith came to the UK in August as part of a three-year business apprenticeship working for motorhome manufacturer Burstner at its headquarters near Stuttgart. A period of work experience in another European country is part of the course and is fully funded as part of the German Government scheme.

“We were keen to host Judith’s work experience,” says Southdowns sales manager Ben Tosspell, who believes that everyone involved has gained from her time in the UK. “For Southdowns it has been an opportunity to build on our relationship with Burstner and to benefit from Judith’s enthusiasm and eagerness to learn more about the workplace and our company culture. Judith has improved her language skills and her confidence has grown with every week that has passed. We have invested time and energy in making her internship both enjoyable and useful. Hopefully she will impress Burstner with what she has learnt and they will be more likely to offer her a full-time position when her course is completed”.

Having spent recent months working with the sales team processing orders, translating information from Southdowns’ German suppliers into English and working with the IT team to keep the website updated, what does Judith feel she has gained from the experience? “I have learned such a lot since I arrived in the summer,” she explains, “not just in terms of speaking better English and finding out what it is like to live and work in a foreign country but I can also go back to Burstner and appreciate how the whole business works from the factory through to the customer buying a motorhome”.

While in the UK, Judith was given the opportunity to go to the Motorhome and Caravan Show at the Birmingham NEC in October and represent Southdowns on the Laika stand. “It was my biggest challenge - apart from speaking the language. I really enjoyed being able to do it and would love to get involved in next year’s trade show in Stuttgart”.

As Judith has proved to be such a popular member of staff - if only for a short time - maybe it’s not goodbye after all but simply au revoir.