Interns: Why they are essential 

BUas colleague Peter Warner, English lecturer, interviewed BUas alumni Louise van der Kamp-de Raad, Senior Facility Manager, and Femke Boon-Haagsma, Associate Facility Manager at Savills Netherlands, along with their former intern Anissa Versluis. They were joined by Marianne Korbijn-Bossers, responsible for internship placements at Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas).  

Internships at BUas 

Internships are the lifeblood of any applied sciences study programme. Students who learn about practical matters must, of course, put them into practice. As Anissa herself experienced, “processes are more likely to stick when experiencing them in real life rather than via a PowerPoint presentation”. Students at BUas are immersed in all things practical from as early as the first week of their life as a student. This is when they get an immediate taste for the industry during several company visits. For decades, BUas’ students have been placed at companies around the world, living confidence-building experiences within the industry of their choice, while forging ahead along a career path that is steadily gaining momentum.  

Marianne Korbijn-Bossers has been at the forefront of the BUas placement programme, building her connections and extending her reach within the Facility Management (FM) Industry, from which both Louise and Femke benefited when they embarked on their own international journey. These internships and life experiences remain fresh in their minds. They offered insight into a vast array of possibilities within FM, but it was eventually real estate and property management that appealed to them the most, explaining their current roles at the real estate firm, Savills (a real estate services company).  

The broadness of career paths and work opportunities within FM is often a double-edged sword, both appealing to many students looking for their next step after school, but often acting as an obstacle to finding clarity and direction from the start, too. Many students such as Anissa choose the programme of FM due to its multiple job opportunities and wide reach, but it was only when she started her placement that she began to pinpoint specific elements within FM that attracted her, namely purchasing. She was in daily contact with suppliers during her months at Savills, learning how to communicate effectively with them and identify the best supplier. The pieces of the puzzle started slotting into place during her course, much to the delight of her lecturer. This is a big advantage of internships. 

First Impressions 

The weekly walk among the skyscrapers that continue to shoot up on every corner, the buzz and de view om the 23rd floor make worth the hour commute to Zuidas (a considerable distance in the Netherlands). The contact moments with her colleagues and immediately feeling part of the team struck her the most. As with much of the Netherlands, hierarchy within the business world is not observed rigorously, and Anissa experienced this first-hand at Savills when grabbing a coffee with her CFO. Experiences like this meant she quickly grew in confidence, with Louise and Femke showing great trust in her abilities. 

Her roles varied from interviewing accounts for a project on tenant benchmarking, carrying out market research, and maintaining contact with and obtaining quotations from suppliers. One project she and Louise worked on was “a real eye-opener and showed me how differently things were done in other countries”. Throughout the experience, she benefitted from not just one mentor, but profited from the guidance of both Louise and Femke, whom she met weekly. She gained different insights from each of them and their respective teams. Anissa acknowledged that there were “a lot of responsibilities, but the facility and property management teams invited me to get involved from the start and motivated me along the way”. COVID-19 and the numerous lockdowns reduced the number of hours and days spent in the physical surroundings of the office, but as Femke and Louise pointed out, this hybrid way of working is here to stay. According to Femke, it is now the challenge of a facility manager to determine how they can add value and manage both very different working arrangements for employees. Therefore, Anissa’s split between working from home and at the office was a valuable preview of life beyond university. 
 

Femke and Louise’s Experience 

“In our property management team, everyone knows Anissa, despite having to work from home much of the time. It was great to have her as part of the team”. Clearly Anissa left her mark. When asked why they wanted an intern and why from BUas, Louise was very clear in her response: “Interns keep a business sharp! You know you get talent and students with the right motivation from BUas. Anissa was open from the start and looked at things from a different angle; the environment at Savills invites this attitude”. Experience does not guarantee innovative ideas but can often impede them – a sentiment echoed by Femke. She offered her own view on what the right intern can bring to the table, which she experienced while working on projects with Anissa: “Interns not only bring a fresh perspective, but also new knowledge. We spend much of our time busy in our daily tasks. Therefore, the time to keep up with developments in a constantly changing industry simply isn’t there”. Interns benefit from still being students of the industry. Femke pointed to the example of suppliers and that it can be easier to stick to what you know and become too comfortable, at the same time missing opportunities to make changes which could be beneficial to the company. They invited a new cleaning company each week to present, and Anissa’s lack of preconceived idea proved invaluable in helping make the selection. In Anissa’s own words: “I was encouraged to bring my own ideas to the table. You have to be more critical of the situation, always prepared to ask questions about what is going on, but also knowing when to step back and observe”.  

Anissa’s experience is one of countless others facilitated by Marianne and the team at Breda University. The hope is for students to again head further afield to sample the many dimensions of the FM industry around the world.