Romanian University Event

Well I am going to hijack this weeks blog for my recent vist to Bucharest...what a great city.

The event, British Universities Fair, was organised by The British Embassy Bucharest and UKTI and attracted Universities from all over the UK - sadly not from the South West which was a little disapointing. However, the event attracted a great many Romanian students all looking to study at British Universities and was, in my opinion, a great success. An excellent job from Adriana and Iliana organising this their first University event. Thank you ladies. In addition to the students, I met with a number of agents who offer help in applying for University places and are very interested in offering our Work Experience programmes to Romanian students... as we have found that our usual Romanian students from the RAU are among the best we recieve we are really looking forward to potentially more of these high calibre candidates.

Not wanting to travel all the way to Romania and see only the inside of an hotel I decided to travel a day early and visit the Romanian American University who we have worked with for many years. In fact, four years ago I first met Mihai Sebea from RAU and promised then I would visit...so it has taken me four and a half years to make a three hour flight to get this picture!

I was lucky enough to be given a full tour of the campus and discussed some exciting future plans with Mihai and the University Rector, Professor Ovidiu Folcut, PhD. We can look forward to more students and possible training programmes using our Cultural Awareness course delivered in both the UK and Romania. In addition to all this Mihai, along with Flavius Streianu the Erasmus Co-ordinator and Aiste, took me to lunch in a restaurant called 18 (its on the 18th floor) and offers an amazing view of Bucharest. I was also treated to an evening out with them at the incredible Caru' ca bere - what an experience!

I was also able to meet with Manuela Epure (and her husband Marius), a long time friend of Jayne (our MD) and Prorector at Spiru Haret University, I was again treated to a fantastic meal out and perfect hospitality...and once again we are looking forward to hosting students from Manuela's University, The University Spiru Haret in Bucharest.

All in all, we were the only non university attending the event and as such attracted a great deal of attention, it is amazing the high esteem that the British education system is held in, particularly in Romania. It can only be good for Torbay to promote our area like this - once again our video (thanks MGVP) was of great interest with people hardly able to believe that the area is in England! While I am offering thanks Quentin at Q-Ball Media and Jim at South West Colour Labs managed to design, print and deliver a new banner (only 600mm wide so it fits in a suitcase) in 3 days - can't ask more than that!

On a personal note, it was refreshing to find such a high level of customer service...it really is amazing how nothing is too much trouble - even at the airport the level of service was far beyond the standard we have come to expect here in the UK and you really feel valued in every establishment you visit. It's also quite nice to be able to have a smoke and a drink in smoking areas found in every establishment but its probably not politically correct to say that.

Cercul Militar, was built in 1911 and is the cultural headquarters of the Romanian Army. Cercul Militar is situated in the Center of Bucharest, in the university zone, on Calea Victoriei.

The amazing view looking down from '18' - a great restaurant giving panoramic views across Bucharest and a view over the central park area of the city

So, a really good event, an opportunity to visit partner organisations and my first, and I hope not last, visit to Bucharest. I was proud to be there to represent The Training Partnership Ltd, Torbay (and the South West), our Work Placements and of course our host families. I hope I have achieved some extra groups who will visit, work in and enjoy our area and in doing so help to aid the business growth in Torbay.