Tag Archives: A2I

Student Case Study: RJ Working

Name of Student:  Katelyn Wells

Degree Subject:  BSc Business

Job Title: PR and Communications Support Worker

Company Name:  RJ Working

Type of Internship: Access to Internships (A2I) 

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

I have been responsible for the set-up and maintenance of a new, fit-for-purpose, website for the organisation. I have also taken a key role in the internal and external communications which aided in my role of organising two events, one being the 10th Birthday Party for the organisation, and the other working with a team to deliver an event for young people across Cornwall.                                                                                                                                       

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

I have loved my internship and have had the opportunity to learn and develop my skill set in many areas. Regarding hard skills, project management, communication and web design are just a few that I have enjoyed. Being able to work on and deliver an incredible event to young people regarding tackling discrimination has been brilliant.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • IT

Attributes Developed:

  • Creative thinking
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

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

What I have enjoyed the most is the development of team communications, working in a small charity that are all so passionate about social and cultural change has been an incredible experience that I will carry with me throughout my career. I have been supported in challenging my capabilities both professionally and personally. My confidence in a professional environment has grown substantially. Overall my experience with the internship has been invaluable.

Employer Quote: 

“She has been critical to the launch and development of our website, our twitter developing use of Twitter and our events management. In July Katelyn was central for 2 events – co-ordinating our Tenth Birthday Party celebration, hosted at Trebah Garden, and a Together For Justice event for young people in which she played a leading role. Katelyn has also been central to our Climate Action Group, helping to co-ordinate, noting meetings.” – Deborah Mitchell CEO

Employer Case Study: 

https://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/internships/employer-case-study-rj-working-cio/

Student Case Study: Mousetrap Theatre Projects

Name of Student:  Jemima Unsworth

Degree Subject:  English

Job Title: Family First Nights Assistant

Company Name:  Mousetrap Theatre Projects

Type of Internship: Access to Internships (A2I) 

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

I assisted across the entire four month programme.

My roles included
– processing applications
– registering organisations.
– liaising with box offices, marketers, and producers.
– solving queries
– organising the launch event.
– assisting with work shops.
– creating resources for the programme.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

Processing 270 of the 300 applications and organising the launch event.

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

I felt overwhelmed at points with my workload but was able to open up about this to make my work load more manageable.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Strategic Planning
  • IT
  • Networking

Attributes Developed:

  • Creative thinking
  • Independence
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

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

My internship has been life changing. Being at Mousetrap has opened the door to working in the theatre industry and highlighted the importance of working on a large scale project which changes so many lives. My internship was multi layered and gave me a 360 experience of working on a project from beginning to end. My skills have helped me get a full time job at Mousetrap.

Employer Case Study:  University of Exeter Business School

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter Business School

Name of Employer: David Monciardini

Job Title: Senior Lecturer

Internship Scheme used:  Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“Our intern took an active role in our event on local food policy contributing in a very mature way to the debate about food insecurity.

Some of his tasks were:

– Research on Sustainable Food Places network.
– Comparison of Sustainable Food Places policies with Milan Urban Food Policy Pact ones.
– Presentation of the results of the desk research.
– Data mining and investigation of local food policy partnerships in Cornwall.
– Organisation of a policy research event as part of the Cornwall Food Policy Pact

The student is really quick to learn and he has a bright character that will allow him to work well with everyone in his future career. A great person to work with. I had a very positive experience and I hope he also benefited from this internship.”

 

Employer Case Study: Opportunity China

Name of Organisation: Opportunity China

Name of Employer: Stephanie Day

Job Title: Operations Manager

Internship Scheme used: Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“Our intern is becoming more familiar with Chinese social media management, and uses her Mandarin skills to build rapport with customers. She has got involved, quickly became part of the team, and took all that’s been passed to her!

Really positive experience, thank you. Work experience is so important for students to obtain, and our intern has been a delight!”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Remy Chait

Job Title: Lecturer

Internship Scheme used: Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“Our intern was set the task of researching and testing a new assay for the laboratory to measure mutation rate in bacteria. She accumulate literature resources on the assay and performed initial testing to compare it to literature benchmarks. Included in these tests were assays in conditions specific to the lab focus of antibiotic resistance. She summarized her findings well at the end of the internship.

Having supervised the student on her 3rd year Bioscience project, this internship was a good opportunity to give her a slightly different direction and the chance to develop a higher level of independence in the lab working on a small-scale project. The project was new to her and she had complete control of it, which I believe was useful in her exploration of guiding her own work.”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter, CMH

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter, CMH

Name of Employer: Rachel Hayes

Job Title: Senior Research Fellow

Internship Scheme used:  Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“Our intern had excellent attention to detail, always turned up to schools early and was happy to stay longer to anonymise data with me, and she had a great presence with the children. She also took onboard feedback I gave her on the first day which showed great team working. On top of her excellent work during school visits, she was extremely fast and efficient at data entry!

It was really great to have the student as part of our team and I would highly recommend this scheme.”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter, Biosciences

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter, Biosciences

Name of Employer: Chris Thornton

Job Title: Professor of Fungal Immunology

Internship Scheme used:  Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“Our intern had completed an undergraduate lab project with me between Sept and Dec 2021. The internship allowed her to return to my lab to carry out further experiments related to her initial project. The outputs from this additional work have allowed completion of key experiments needed for advancement of our research and development activities.

She gained valuable additional experience working in a research laboratory, adding to her skills base and building her confidence as a scientist. She produced results of publishable quality, and she will be included as a co-author on a peer-reviewed paper in a high impact factor journal. This will further strengthen our lead in the development of rapid antigen tests for human pathogenic fungi.

A positive experience, allowing the intern to gain valuable further hands-on experience in a research and development laboratory, and adding valuable data to our R&D programme.”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Barbara Tschirren

Job Title: Senior Lecturer in Biosciences

Internship Scheme used:  Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“The intern participated in the fieldwork for a bird population monitoring project. Besides regular nestbox checks, she was involved in the monitoring of insect abundance in the birds’ territories and in vegetation surveys. The student was actively involved in all these processes and helped to optimise monitoring protocols. She mastered the different new field techniques within a short period of time, showed a lot of enthusiasm for fieldwork and helped to optimise field protocols.

The project greatly benefited from having our intern in the team and her contribution to data collection made a real difference. At the same time, the internship allowed the student to gain valuable new field techniques skills that will be highly valuable for a career in ecological research or consultancy. A win-win overall.”

Employer Case Study: People and Mining: University of Exeter

Name of Organisation: People and Mining: University of Exeter – SSIS – Politics and International Relations

Name of Employer: Deborah McFarlane

Job Title: Lecturer

Internship Scheme used: Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“Our intern contributed to some of the ongoing activities of our network, helping to organise online workshops, taking minutes from meetings, note taking and writing up blogs from research panels. He has also done a range of development work, for example infographics to use on social media.

Working closely with members of the People and Mining team gave the student experience of a range of tasks and also situated him as a core member of our group. Our intern’s confidence grew and he took on some projects that he was instrumental in creating and planning, such as the infographics.

It’s been great, we have learned a lot working with Jack and I believe the experience has been beneficial for him.”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Dr Jennifer Lay

Job Title:  Lecturer

Internship Scheme used: Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) , Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“The student contributed to two research projects. For the first project she assisted with designing a participatory study involving street-attached individuals. She researched potential university and community collaborators and prepared materials for ethical approval (including consent forms and study protocol). Hence, our internwas instrumental in getting this study off the ground and in preparing the necessary documentation. For the second project, she conducted a thorough literature search on the use of spoken language biomarkers for dementia detection. She examined hundreds of articles and compiled summary information on those of interest to our review article on the topic. The GBP suggested useful ways of improving the literature search process and her analysis of the literature provided novel insights that have been useful in this paper project.

Our intern was consistently thoughtful and proactive in her work, and she challenged me to improve the way I conduct research. For example, she identified potential ethical challenges involved in working with street-attached research participants, as well as solutions to these challenges, which I am implementing. She also taught me about software tools and other resources that are instrumental to the experience-sampling work that we do. The student was well-organised and able to analyse complex information in a timely manner. Her capabilities as a research intern far exceed those of most other students at her level. If I had the requisite funding, I would have gladly kept her on as a research team member.”