Student Name: Ella

Pathway Programme: Pathways to Charity and Development

Internship Role: Charity Development Assistant

Internship Employer: Exeter City Community Trust

As a Sociology student in my final year, the thought of deciding what I want to do for a career was a daunting one! With so many different options and possibilities, I felt quite overwhelmed and unsure (and I know a lot of other students tend to feel the same!) I decided to apply for the University’s Professional Pathways internship programme, in the hopes of getting some experience and a clearer idea of what kind of job I might like to do in the future. There were 4 different sectors to choose from: I applied to the ‘Pathways to Charity and Development’.

For me, working in the Charity sector was an interesting prospect (and it seemed to link in well with my personal and academic interests), but I didn’t know much about it, and I wasn’t sure what types of jobs were available to me within the Charity sector. After applying to Professional Pathways, and being successful in the Assessment Centre, I secured a place on the scheme and was invited to attend a series of employer-led training sessions. Speakers from both local and national charities came in to discuss various topics (such as charity funding and fundraising, communications, volunteer management, and humanitarianism). The training week culminated in group presentations to a panel of employers, in response to different project briefs set by local charities. My group’s brief asked us to review, evaluate, and provide recommendations for Exeter City Community Trust’s social media channels. We were then rewarded with pizza, as well as a chance to network with employers!

After the training, I began my paid 35-hour internship. I was matched with Exeter City Community Trust (ECCT), as a Charity Development Assistant. During this internship, I have had the opportunity to learn about all the different roles within ECCT, as well as the programmes and activities that they offer for the community (focussing on sports, education, and wellbeing). A highlight for me so far has been helping with the “social café”, which was set up during COVID to combat loneliness. ECCT’s social cafe is a place where people can go, once a week, to have a cup of tea and chat with others. From talking to some of the regular attendees, it was clear how important this was to their own wellbeing! It seemed like a real lifeline for older generations, and it was amazing to see that it has made such a difference.

In terms of how my involvement in Pathways to Charity and Development has helped me in my career journey so far, I’ve gained valuable insight into what it might be like to work in the Charity sector. It’s also confirmed that this is a career I would love to go into; specifically, a role that centres around improving the wellbeing of communities. Looking ahead to finishing my internship with Exeter City Community Trust, I cannot wait to see what my next career steps are, and I’m excited to take what I have learnt from the Professional Pathways programme forward into life as an Exeter graduate.

Pathways to Charities & International Development is one of 4 sector specific training courses offered which make up the Professional Pathways programme, hosted by the central careers service. Employers can get involved by offering a 1 hr training session, providing a business project for students to work on in the training or hosting a funded 35 hr internship.

“I would wholeheartedly recommend that employers get involved with Professional Pathways”

Line Manager Name: Jack Watts

Job Title: Direct Marketing Executive

How was your experience of hosting a Pathways intern?

Ellie was able to join us in the office on each day of her internship and met a range of colleagues from across the charity, either face to face or by video call. We purposefully scheduled her work days around when others would be in the office and on one day we had a scheduled Team Day where Ellie was able to meet the wider team and join us for lunch. We agreed to spread Ellie’s five working days over two weeks which gave me time to arrange her workload in between her work days and to review any work she had done before she started her next working day. Overall, we found that it worked really well and I know Ellie appreciated the flexibility we offered around when she could start and finish, as well as having the option to work from home if she needed.

Given the Professional Pathways internship is 35 hours in total, how would you recommend ensuring both you and your intern(s) gain as much as possible from the experience?

I’ve managed several Professional Pathways roles now, from different programmes and at different organisations. I’ve learnt that it’s really important to get the balance right between ensuring the experience is valuable for the student and that the outputs are useful for the employer. This can be a difficult balance to strike and weighting the internship too far in one direction or another will mean one of you may not get what you need from the experience.

To help both Ellie and myself meet our objectives, I made sure to manage expectations from the beginning of the internship. I had a quick call with Ellie before the internship began to find out what she was hoping to get from the experience and what areas of work she was most interested in, and I also explained we would have to balance work she found the most interesting with tasks that were high priority. Ellie completely understood this and we checked in regularly throughout the internship to make sure we were getting the balance right.

I think it’s easy to underestimate what students may get from certain tasks; things that are ‘business as usual’ to you and your colleagues may be more interesting to a student who has never done anything like it before.

“The research and skillset these students have might be something other charities need, so I highly recommend employing an intern”

Line Manager Name: Laura Barnes

Job Title: Marketing, Communications and PR Officer

How did hosting an intern via the Professional Pathways programme benefit you and your organisation?

Cornwall VSF was gearing up for a sector-leading event, to introduce the VCSE to the new Integrated Care System. Having an intern gave us support to design a feedback system to gather as much information as possible. We used their impressive R&D skills to help us with this. We use the feedback gathered by the survey co-created with our intern to shape our future event offer. This will benefit charities and VCSE organisations in Cornwall, and in turn will benefit communities.

How was your experience of hosting a Pathways intern?

We are currently a remote organisation. Our intern rose to this challenge well. She attended our face-to-face event for 8 hours and took some amazing photos for us. We then arranged some face-to-face meeting to check she felt supported.

Given the Professional Pathways internship is 35 hours in total, how would you recommend ensuring both you and your intern(s) gain as much as possible from the experience?

I recommend designing or co-designing a plan to ensure the intern knows what’s expected of them. I had a call with our intern, to learn about their strengths and preferences, to design a project that is mutually beneficial.

Why would you recommend Professional Pathways to other employers?

Absolutely. The research and skillset these students have might be something other charities need, so I highly recommend employing an intern. It’s fantastic news that the interns are paid for their experience, opening this up to be as inclusive as possible.

What advice would you give to a student considering applying for Professional Pathways?

Have an initial call with the employer to ask for a robust project plan, which helps to design your hours well, and make the best use of your time. Don’t be afraid to challenge people and offer your viewpoint. You are skilled.

“Professional Pathways internships are an invaluable opportunity to ‘see inside’ an organisation”

Line Manager Name: Christie Burton

Job Title: Head of Fundraising

How did hosting an intern via the Professional Pathways programme benefit you and your organisation?

Our intern worked on the early stages of planning for a Youth Membership scheme which is being considered as a membership product that could potentially be offered by the Association in the future. As a young person herself, within the target audience for the scheme, and brimming with ideas, Hannah was able to suggest what she saw as being the most popular benefits that we could offer as part of the package, strategies to link with key organisations and groups, ideas for comms and technology and also some barriers to engagement that we should consider. This work will be seminal in the development of our team’s thinking around the scheme.