Category Archives: Administration

Employer Case Study – Global Systems Institute

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter – Global Systems Institute

Name of Employer: Andy Richards

Job Title: Global Systems Institute Manager

Internship Scheme used: Student Campus Partnership (SCP) | Employer Engagement & Student Employment | University of Exeter

Feedback:

“Hosting the internship was an incredibly beneficial experience for both our organisation and the student. It was a productive four weeks, we were able to progress a piece of work that needed to come off the back-burner and the intern learnt new skills. An excellent win-win.”

Student Case Study: University of Exeter Internships Dept

Name of Student:  Harry Moreton

Degree Subject:  BSc Psychology

Job Title:  A2I Internships Administrative Assistant

Company Name:  University of Exeter Internships Dept.

Type of Internship:  Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs)  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Creating employer/student internship contracts
Maintaining email box
Updating spreadsheets
Creating some marketing posts/posters
Chasing essential paperwork

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

Nominated for student employee of the year and gaining valuable work experience with a fantastic team

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

Working from home for the first time was something to get used too but this came with practice. Besides that, it was tricky once I broke my arm but was helped enormously by Hannah who was really understanding of my circumstances.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Organisation
  • Teamwork and collaboration
  • Communication
  • Time and workload management

Attributes Developed:

  • Motivation
  • Confidence
  • Independence
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

A fantastic experience of which I would recommend (and have) to any student. You gain valuable skills alongside your degree that you would not get otherwise. I have since gone into an admin role through the GBP scheme and am using the skills I gained from this internship already. A fantastic department to work for full of great people, the experience ended too soon!

Student Case Study: Professional Pathways Administrative Assistant

Name of Student:  Lucia Janigova

Degree Subject:  BA Anthropology

Job Title: Administrative Assistant

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship:  Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs)  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Helping with the adminsitrative aspect of running the Professional Pathways programme. This included responding to student emails, recording data from applications and email correspondence, preparing for the training week and helping with running of the training week.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

I believe my biggest achievement during my internship was the training week itself. We had to manage a lot of different parts of the programme while running it and for me personally it was challenging especially because of the high number of people we met, introduced to each other and in general made sure were enjoying the week while we were simultaneously responding to any issues that arose.

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • Decision Making

Attributes Developed:

  • Personal Awareness
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

My internship with the Professional Pathways was a great experience. I had the chance to meet amazing people and learn more about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into running such programme. I have personally learnt a lot, whether it be improving my written and spoken professional communication, managing my time around many small tasks and prioritising between them or putting my creativity into use to promote the programme. It was an all-round experience and a great opportunity to develop further professionally.

Employer Case Study: Devon County Council

Name of Organisation: Devon County Council – North Devon AONB team

Name of Employer: Jenny Carey-Wood

Job Title: AONB Manager

Internship Scheme used: Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) , 

Feedback:

“Our intern delivered such a varied range of tasks in just five months, working with a large number of colleagues and partner organisations to deliver concrete results in terms of 2 reports, 4 videos and all our social media.

It was a very positive experience and I am looking forward to recruiting another intern in the Autumn. We were impressed by the flexibility, hard work and skill set of the intern, her willingness to take on everything we offered her, juggling deadlines, excellent communication and joint working skills. The internship offered an opportunity to focus on and deliver key tasks that made a real difference to our work. Seeing our service through the eyes of a young person in their twenties has been hugely helpful.”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter – MCRG

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter – MCRG

Name of Employer: Louise Vennells

Job Title: Senior Press and Media Manager

Internship Scheme used: Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) , 

Feedback:

“Our intern was instrumental to ensuring that our on-campus graduation celebration ran smoothly, in a covid era. She oversaw the complicated process of getting GDPR permission from graduating students, and managed our social media content, which saw particularly high levels of engagement. She has overseen a number of stories that have achieved media coverage, and increased our both the volume and quality of our output across our social media channels. Our intern has been a highly valued member of the team.

She launched and managed a new-look staff newsletter, using a new programme that allows for a more flexible format. She managed the transition ably and professionally, showing both creativity and attention to detail.

Our intern is highly capable and organised, and has been a pleasure to work with. She has progressed well in areas including media understanding and news writing, and has become a productive and creative member of the team.”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter Library

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter, University Library

Name of Employer: Philip Barraclough

Job Title: Library Digital Content Administrator

Internship Scheme used: Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) , 

Feedback:

“Having a Graduate Business Partner as part of our team meant that we were able to capitalise on their youth and enthusiasm. They brought a fresh perspective to our work, as well as the insights into student life and behaviour that come with having so recently been a student themselves. Their enthusiasm for all areas of Library work enabled them to complete routine tasks which allowed more senior staff to concentrate on designing and developing services and resources. But at the same time, our Graduate Business Partner was involved in these same discussions and contributed interesting insights and perspectives. Much of the Library’s social media activity this year has only been made possible the excellent and enthusiastic work of our Graduate Business Partner. Similarly, we have only been able to expand our accessibility guidance and provision by recruiting a Graduate Business Partner who was already familiar with this area and willing to collaborate with other Library staff to develop this. Whilst we may not be able to further expand this guidance and activity once our Graduate Business Partner leaves us, nevertheless without them we wouldn’t even have been able to make a start.

Apart from confidently independently managing their own day-to-day tasks to free up the workload of managers to concentrate on managing things, the e-book guidance webpage and library accessibility webpage on our library website only exist thanks to the hard work and contribution of our Graduate Business Partner. Similarly the increased social media content the library is posting each week is also a major achievement of our Graduate Business Partner. Finally, our Graduate Business Partner authored a blog post that was hosted on the Study Zone blog, something we have struggled to achieve in the past. They have lots of rather visible achievements to show for their time with us!

Overall, I would say the experience of having a Graduate Business Partner has been excellent and I would have regretted not recruiting one in hindsight. The only downside is that we were not able to make their contract permanent! Otherwise, I would have loved to have kept them on as a permanent Library staff member. The experience has been so positive that I certainly consider recruiting other Graduate Business Partners in the future with a view to hopefully retaining them as a permanent Library staff member.”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter, Professional Services; Exams

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter, Professional Services; Exams

Name of Employer: Sarah Miller

Job Title: Response Team Coordinator

Internship Scheme used: Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) , 

Feedback:

“Our intern made an impression straight away on joining his placement team in Exams. He showed great flexibility and adaptability to respond to the fast paced environment. He quickly learnt the systems and quickly became a person who was useful to the team in training other new starters. He has demonstrated many professional qualities and was able to secure a permanent job with the Exams department after a few months with them.

I would highly recommend the GBP scheme, our intern was an excellent worker who demonstrated many positive qualities we would want in employees. Very can do attitude and keen to learn everyday. Took on every task with relish and enthusiasm. All in all a very pleasant employee to manage.”

Student Case Study: Research Assistant UofE

Name of Student:  Elizabeth Hedges

Degree Subject:  BA Philosophy

Job Title: Research Assistant

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship:  Access to Internships (A2I)

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

– checking references in manuscript
– searching through library databases for research
– searching through recently published relevant works

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

I learnt how philosophical research is done, and was able to apply that to help towards a final project. Since I was working with a manuscript, I wasn’t able to produce a final project, but I did create smaller goals that I was able to achieve, such as following lines of research, and finding specific items of evidence for arguments.

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

When I first started, I had trouble finding relevant information, as I would search though databases, and thousands of texts would come up. I was able to work with the library to practice my research skills, and I am now able to research effectively.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • Leadership
  • Strategic Planning
  • Decision Making

Attributes Developed:

  • Logical thinking
  • Creative thinking
  • Independence
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

I worked as a research assistant, for a lecturer I admire, on a piece of work that I found extremely interesting. I was clear that I hope to work as an academic, so I was allowed to experience what this would be like, through the work I was asked to do. I felt supported throughout my internship, and whilst I was working towards various goals, I was allowed to follow my own interests in the topic and develop the skills that I wanted to focus on. I loved working as an intern, and am very excited for the opportunities it has opened for me.

Student Case Study: Conference Assistant UofE

Name of Student:  Zamir Kadodia

Degree Subject:  BA Philosophy

Job Title: Conference Assistant

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship:  Access to Internships (A2I)

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

  • Responsible for putting together a programme committee.
  • Responsible for co-ordinating the refereeing of abstract submissions.
  • Responsible for co-ordinating acceptance/rejection of abstracts.
  • Responsible for co-ordinating the conference programme.
  • Responsible for conference management: leading a team of postgraduate volunteers, co-ordinating notices and last-minute changes, answering questions, guiding delegates.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

The work helped to enable the smooth running of the conference. The biggest task was perhaps co-ordinating the refereeing of abstracts, where I had to gather a list of philosophers willing to review abstracts, and then delegate each abstract to three philosophers, making sure each abstract was within that philosopher’s field of study and that there was no overlap. This was a mammoth task, and I developed new skills along the way such as working with EasyChair and Microsoft Excel. It was a great personal achievement of mine to see each paper through from the submissions, to acceptance or rejection, to refereeing, and then finally to see them presented at the conference where I was an assistant.

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

There were occasions where we did not have enough reviewers for the papers we had accepted, and this involved a lot of emails to a lot of different philosophers, which was very time consuming. Thus, I had to plan ahead and develop my skills of planning and also communication. Further, at the conference, there were times when some of the conference assistants had to drop out because of illness, so I overcame these challenges by taking up their shifts or discussing a plan of action with the other assistants.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Problem Solving
  • Organisation
  • IT
  • Focus on Goals and Outcomes
  • Decision Making

Attributes Developed:

  • Logical thinking
  • Creative thinking
  • Independence
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

Overall, this was a fantastic experience. I had an amazing line manager who trained me enough so that I could complete the tasks I needed to complete independently, and gain new skills in the process. It was great to be involved with all aspects of the conference, and see it through from start to finish. Although it was challenging at times, the rewards far outweigh the benefits, and I believe taking this internship has shown me a different side to the field of philosophy, and one not seen by an undergraduate. I was glad to have had this opportunity.

Student Case Study: University of Exeter

Name of Student:  Katie Smith

Degree Subject:  BA CH Art History and Visual Culture with English

Job Title: GBP 5063 Education Support Assistant

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship:  Graduate Business Partnership (GBP)

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

  • Providing first-line enquiry and standard transaction education support service for students and academic teaching staff, and high-quality general administration support as required for Humanities programmes
  • Communicating with students, staff and members of the public over a broad range of enquiries and issues in a clear, professional and friendly manner via email, phone and face-to-face interactions
  • Training and understanding of a variety of general programmes and specialised database systems, with a high level of competency in Microsoft Office
  • Responsible for a number of key administrative processes within the subjects of English and Film, such as processing assessments and allocating modules, all of which required management of large databases, problem solving and attention to detail, both during the initial processing and subsequent checks.
  • Working closely with the student welfare team to process sensitive and confidential information in an appropriate manner for students with a variety of mental or physical disabilities
  • Improving the efficiency of other team members and tasks through devising clear, systematic methodologies and creating simple ‘How to’ documents, as well as continuously committing to internal training sessions

What outputs and outcomes did you deliver for your employer?  

Outputs = On a daily basis I would produce clear answers to student enquiries. Behind the scenes, I also produced ‘How to’ documents for internal use within my team, which helped to improve understanding of key processes and programmes. These were also beneficial for new starters. I also produced numerous reports for key members of staff, such as personal tutor allocations and module allocations.

Outcomes = I have had really positive feedback from within my team and have been given an above and beyond award for my hard work. The administrator I assist has also been able to focus on more important and complex tasks as they have trusted me to be able to take care of processes independently. In what has been a very tough year our team has been able to maintain efficiency, and I believe that is in part due to my efficient working and assistance.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

My biggest achievement was successfully allocating modules to all 2nd and 3rd year students on English and Film programmes. My administrator and line manager were both on annual leave, which meant that I was left responsible for the entire process, which I had not completed before. This process included harvesting the data of module selections from over 300 students, going through each student and creating a spreadsheet of potential module numbers, meeting with the Director of Education with our department to discuss these and which modules needed to be capped. I then needed to go through each individual student and allocate modules to them based on their rankings, as well as specific programme rules, ensuring terms were balanced and that they had the right number of credits. Many of the students had issues with their selections, and so I had to get in touch with them to explain the problems and provide solutions. Once all allocations were made, I then needed to open the record of each student on our specialised database programme SITS and add in/remove the modules they had been allocated. I also had regular assistant tasks to complete such as answering the phone and general enquiries. To achieve all of this, I ensured that I had all the information organised beforehand and set myself smaller more achievable goals throughout the week. As a result of this hard work, I was able to complete all of the above within the 5 days that my managers were away. Upon their return they were extremely impressed with how much I have been able to achieve. I would say this is my biggest achievement because I was really proud of my work ethic and how I was able to work so well under pressure.

What did not go so well on your internship? How did you overcome any challenges?

It was challenging to start the position remotely, and this has meant that over 1 year on there are still members of my team I have never met in person. However, I think this has really improved my computer skills and communication. I have found it a challenge to provide customer service over the phone, however as this is a task required on a daily basis, I have pushed through and I think my confidence has definitely improved.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • Leadership
  • Strategic Planning
  • Decision Making

Attributes Developed:

  • Logical thinking
  • Creative thinking
  • Independence
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

“My internship experience has been really positive, and has been a great way for me to get a full time role in a real position without feeling out of my depth. Most administrative positions advertised require previous office experience, so completing this internship has given me a whole host of useful experience to take forward into my career.”