What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

Coordinating the A2I scheme:
*Managed the Access to Internships email
*Managed the student and graduate sign up to the scheme, saved applications and highlighted any issues.
*Used My Career Zone to make appropriate changes to the sign up form.
*Managed the A2I email list and sent out fortnightly e-newsletters.
*Prepared A2I Agreements and Appendices for the employer/student/ chased returns where necessary.
*Updated the spreadsheets, recorded accurate and up to date information
*Took part in the weekly Internship catch up meetings.
*Got involved in creative marketing/PR
*Assisted with arrangements for Access to Internships events – ensuring that they were advertised on My Career Zone,
made appropriate room bookings, promoted them across campus and assisted with the preparation of the paperwork.
*Sent out follow up emails to students/graduates and employers to check the progress of the internship.
*Dealt with setting employers up on the finance system, raising purchase orders and payment of invoices and kept
accurate records of the finance activity.
*Arranged grant payments to students and recorded payments grants accurately.
*Obtained feedback from employers and students/graduates
*Contributed to the evaluation of scheme
*As appropriate updated the A2I procedures.
*Assisted colleagues in the team with other activities, particularly at times of peak demand
*Worked together in a mutually supportive way and worked towards shared goals

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I feel I accomplished many things as my time as GBP – for example greatly exceeding targets set, both in the form of sign ups and financially. I also began to overcome a fear of public speaking and of advising students about potential careers.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I administrated around £237,000 which consequently helped around 218 students with funding. I also often covered and assisted the internship team, especially when a member of the team was absent or when their workload became extra demanding. Similarly, I often assisted the wider team and as a result have gained valuable experience of event organisation. For example I have helped to run events such as the Career Mentor scheme’s ‘Meet Your Mentor’ events, Careers in the South West event and recruitment fairs.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

Many challenges arose when thinking about how to specifically market to students who meet the Widening Participation criteria. This was very important to overcome as the WP funding was one of the largest pots of funding I was tasked with spending/allocating; over £150,000. This was difficult due to the sensitive nature of the criteria and the fact that I had no means to be able to identify them as a mass. One of the ways I overcame this was by assembling as many data reports as possible in order to be able to identify and target larger numbers of WP students.