Category Archives: Modern Languages

Student Researcher – University of Exeter Education Incubator

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

  • Offering administrative support to three Chinese fellows on MOOC course on contemporary Chinese culture
  • Planning and drafting a social media campaign
  • Proofreading and editing of English texts written by non-native speakers, and adapting these to an online context
  • Recruiting student and non-student volunteers for the trial version of the course

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

The independent nature of the role meant that I was able to really strengthen my skills in taking the initiative and working autonomously and independently.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

Administrative support, lightening my colleagues’ workload, and ensuring that all course content and materials were adapting and appropriate for an English-language audience.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Communication, leadership, decision making

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Initiative, perseverance, independence

Research Assistant – University of Exeter Modern Languages

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

In this internship, I conducted research for the Russian Department on how Russian is taught at every other university in the UK, so the department could analyse the data to ensure the course at Exeter is of the best possible quality. I also conducted similar research for the Chinese, Portuguese and Italian departments. In addition to this research, I also created two documents – a resources guide for students on their Year Abroad and also a ‘Survival Guide’ for the incoming Beginner’s Russian cohort.

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

I have never worked in an office environment before and by working in academia I learnt a lot about teaching and research, and the entire ‘behind the scenes’ of an academic’s life.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

The research and Year Abroad document were tasks that the department had wanted to do for a long time, but did not have the manpower or hours to complete. By completing these tasks, I lightened the work load of the department and hopefully provided plenty of data through my research than can be used to make improvements in the future.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Teamwork and collaboration, problem solving, negotiation

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Motivation, personal awareness, work ethic

Graduate Finance Associate – University of Exeter, Finance Services

euro-seem-money-finance

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

My main responsibilities were assisting my colleagues with various daily and monthly tasks (including staff monitoring and modelling bursary allocations), carrying out and presenting data analysis and processing journals for management accounts. I contributed to the preparation of the University’s Access Agreement (a document that outlines the work that the University will undertake to widen participation) for 2018/19. I was also able to attend a variety of meetings and get an insight into different areas of the University.

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

I learnt a lot about working in finance and confirmed that  I would like to pursue a career in this sector. I was able to use the knowledge and experience I gained in my internship to secure a permanent graduate role in finance.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I was able to lighten the workload of my colleagues during busy periods by taking over some of their usual activities.

“Our GBP made a really valuable contribution, was a fast learner and fitted in well to the team.  She was able to use her experience here when interviewing for the permanent finance role that she has secured.” – Management Accountant. 

Commercial Management Intern – M&G Investments

M&G

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

While at M&G I liaised with TPA’s, compiling information for the internal funds review. This included contributions to conference calls. I was in charge of making sure that fund managers signed off trades on a daily basis, compiling their comments and writing summaries of these comments for board meetings. I also compiled a summary on order inflation for a board meeting as well as tracking internal errors until their closure. I attended high level meetings and had frequent contact with all business areas. A number of staff gave me an overview of different areas of the company and explained in great detail their day to day jobs and business areas.

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

I learnt a lot about finance which is never something I have studied. I acquitted myself well in all situations, meetings, networking etc. even though i had never worked in an office environment.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

i frequently took on jobs from two teams that allowed me to lighten the workload for numerous employees. I could do the work autonomously which meant that I was not a burden to the team once things had been explained.

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

I was overly critical of myself but this got easier with time and experience. I had to improve my attention to detail.  I did this by checking everything a number of times and being overly thorough before handing in completed work.

Business Development Intern – Audio Analytic

UoE Internship, University of Exeter Internships, SCP, SBP, A2I, GBP

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

To research and develop different verticals for the company to deploy its technology into. To come up with solutions to non-technical problems incurred by the company.

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

The internship was a fantastic opportunity to develop my skills in a company and helped me clarify the transitional steps between higher education and a career.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I felt my time at the company was of mutual benefit to both employer and intern. I enjoyed the challenges I was set and felt I carried them out to the best of my ability.

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

I am very grateful for the experience I gained from the internship but in hindsight I would have developed my IT skills more before the internship started.

“Ben was very useful to the company in his approach and delivery of strategic information for the company’s development” – Line Manager

Ben

Language School Assistant – Ara Languages

University of Exeter Internship Scheme, UoE Internship, SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

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

My responsibilities included brand development, increasing the website traffic, updating the website and campaigning via e-mail.

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

As a humanities student entering the internship I was keen to develop my business skills and Ara Languages helped me to achieve this. The Web Administrator role saw me work with Google Analytics and AdWords which developed my advertising, communication and administrative skills – skills I would not have otherwise learnt.

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

Juggling the internship with forth year studies and society roles and commitments was arduous at times, but the skills I’ve learnt and the insight I now have into how small businesses operate made the effort well worth it.

“Having Thomas in the team has been very positive due to his high commitment and dedication to his role; he was very creative, easy to work with, proactive, responsible and punctual” – Line Manager

Tandem Language Exchange Coordinator – Foreign Language Centre, University of Exeter

University of Exeter Internship, UoE Internship, SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

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

As one of two intern co-ordinators for the Tandem Language Exchange initiative, run by the Foreign Language Centre, my role was to market and publicise the scheme to students across the university. It was a scheme to encourage students to pair up with another student that was a native speaker or high level learner of the language they wanted to learn. These tandem partnerships consisted of two or more individuals who would essentially share their language skills through informal conversation classes, most often a chat over coffee! This language exchange enabled students with an interest in learning languages to perfect a language they currently studied, or simply to brush up on a language not yet studied for future travel abroad for instance.

Additionally, we organised and ran events to promote the initiative and to encourage the meeting of native speakers and learners. Our largest event was the Tandem Language Scheme Intro Event which we hosted in the Long Lounge Cafe, Devonshire House. We set up a dozen tables each with a different flag for the language of the country it represented: French, Arabic, Japanese, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Polish… the possibilities were endless. We had 50-60 excited language learners and native speakers that turned up, eager to tuck into the complimentary continental buffet we’d laid on for them in the small ticket price of £3, before dispersing naturally to mingle with students of different nationalities and year groups within the community. It was a great way to see the home, erasmus and international student body come together as one under a shared ‘love of languages’ umbrella. We’d decorated the venue with large flags, and to end the evening’s event we had guest performances of salsa, cha cha and tango from the Exeter University Dancesport Society.

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

A personal accomplishment was the confidence the programme gave me to network and to foster partnerships with the Erasmus society and other language societies so that there was a shared publicity drive for the scheme across the board of language related societies. I was instrumental in setting up and running intro conversation classes in partnership with the Erasmus society, for the first 6 weeks of term in order to facilitate a meeting opportunity for language learners and native speakers at the start of the year when the students were keen to find a tandem partner for the duration.

The scheme gave me the opportunity to further my previous work experience and time as General Secretary for another university society, and to focus on publicity, marketing, networking and co-ordinating a large scheme: over 500 members liked the facebook group.

burkhard

Marketing and Events Intern – The Argentina Independent

Universtiy of Exeter Internships, UoE Internships, SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

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

As a marketing and events intern I was responsible for editing and sending out the weekly newsletter to subscribers. I also updated the ‘Event’s Directory’ on the website with the latest events going on in the city. The newspaper was keen on interacting with its niche of ex-pat readers so I helped to organise the monthly photo competition and also pub quizzes and found sponsors for prizes. A large Underground Market was also organised and I was responsible for communicating with the independent food and artisan vendors as well as searching for entertainment acts. It was also my role to promote events and competitions though social media. I also helped with a special task of translating subtitles of a Guatemalan film ‘Iximulew Tierra Revuelta’ from Spanish to English.

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

The internship has given me a lot of confidence to try new things and look further into a career abroad where I will be able to utilise my language skills.

Intern – Paris International

Universtiy of Exeter Internships, UoE Internships, SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

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

The main responsibility was to respond to customers via email and telephone to hlep them to arrange the tourist services that the company offered. Once a job had been organised via email, I would then have to ensure that I booked the correct people (guides, translators, transportation etc.) for the correct date. Sometimes I would have to plan trips and events depending on what the customers requested. I also was responsible for going out and marketing the company in hotels. This meant travelling to hotels around Paris and explaining to them what the company does and how to get in contact with them.

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

My French improved a great deal since I was constantly having to communicate in French. I also overcame my fear of using French on the telephone.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

Given that there were next to no employees, I was certainly a benefit to the business. There was one week in which there was only myself, the accountant and the director and often hours or half days where I was literally the soul person in the office. One month in I was given my own key because the director was away on business and the other employees did not come in until after me. For two weeks I was responsible for opening up the office and dealing with all customer business until the others arrived about an hour later.

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

My main problem was arriving with a very limited knowledge of French. I took every opportunity that I could to practice speaking in French and really feel that this improved over my time there.

German Web Translator and Researcher – Sutton’s Packaging Ltd

Universtiy of Exeter Internships, UoE Internships, SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

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

My first task was to translate the company’s website into German and I was then responsible for the German website and to take care of updates etc. My main role after that was being the contact person for all German customers and introducing our new website and the offer of having a German speaker in the company to talk to. I was also looking for new customers by contacting them and sending samples out.

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

It gave me an insight into business operations and I also learnt a lot of new vocabulary. It was also a great opportunity to advance my communication skills by speaking to many people. My ability to switch between German and English speech improved very quickly as well.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

My employer was always very pleased with my work and the overall atmosphere in the company was very nice.

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

It was difficult in the beginning to understand the particular tissue business because there were many words I didn’t know. But the internet is always a great help and I could figure it out either that way or my employer or colleagues would explain it to me.