Project Week on The Efteling Theme Park

The wonderful world of the Efteling was visited by Wittenborg's students as part of project week.

The Excursion

As one of Europe's top attractions, the Efteling theme park surely stands out for thrilling rides and fairytale-inspired experiences. We met up with the students to learn about their experiences at Efteling, and what value they found in such excursions. Some comments received were: It was amazing! It was great! It was so much fun! It’s the best. The experience was magical!
When asked about what it meant to them personally – the value – some students remarked that it was: “a good activity for students to do something else, to do something different and fun while still learning”. One comment that really stood out was: “It was really cool that we had this opportunity because for some of us, we had never had such an experience before”.

The Project

After all the fun at Efteling, it was time get serious and students had to work in groups to write and present their final reports based on the application of marketing theories learnt during lectures,  such as identifying core competencies and competitiveness, assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities nd threats to the organisation. Additionally, second-year students, assessed the life-cycle of the theme park and analysed the organisation through the BCG (Boston Consulting Group) Matrix and the Balance Scoreboard. The presentations were very impressive and successful with some groups recommending that Efteling should consider hiring  more multilingual staff to accommodate its millions of tourists each year.

The importance of project weeks

At Wittenborg, it is mandatory for first- and second-year bachelor's degree students to participate in 12 projects, in order to complete their degree studies. The projects are based on different topic areas, some of which include excursions to popular attractions in the Netherlands such as Efteling, Rijksmuseum and Giethorn, as well as company visits. All of which gives students the opportunity to broaden their horizons outside the classroom by participating in these activities, and learning more about the Netherlands, companies and processes.
Project weeks are a form of both practical and theoretical learning – students get the chance to work in diverse groups, hone their presentation styles, practice writing reports: essential skills when venturing off into the work environment.

WUP 25/04/2018

by Rousanna Baird
©WUAS Press