Category Archives: Philosophy

Global Employability Support Assistant – Employment Services, University of Exeter

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

Helping to run the Erasmus+ work abroad scheme by creating Internship Forms and making sure they are signed off in good time, giving students advice about how to find placements all around the world and dealing with queries and issues from both employers and students while on placement. Working within a very small team, I shared the responsibility of over 250 student placements with my manager. As well as this I held student one-to-one’s once a week to give advice about finding work abroad and organised any global events on campus, including employer presentations and small fairs.

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

My GBP role has allowed me to gain a confidence within a graduate role, that I did not have when I first finished University. As well as this, by working within a small team I have been able to streamline our internal work abroad paperwork processes to make sure that we can better keep on top of each student’s current situation. I have had just the right amount of freedom and direction to really improve my employability, which was the ultimate goal of my internship.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I believe that my internship enabled my team to improve some of our processes and resources, such as our ELE page and online webpages. I believe that my administration role helped lighten the workload of my manager and enabled them to work on projects we may not have previously had the time to undertake. By organising all of the employer and internal events for the Global Showcase for example, meant that my manager could concentrate on the marketing and advertising of the event in more detail.

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

Quite often I had to work independently, which to begin with was a challenge but in hindsight really helped me to get to grips with my role as I was forced to learn the huge amount of knowledge needed quickly. Another difficulty within this role is that almost daily I encounter queries that I had never come across before. A good knowledge of what other teams within the University did, and of what reliable online resources there were available meant that I learnt to think on my feet and find answers to these problems quickly.

Research Intern – Healthwatch Cornwall

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

My main responsibility was to create a report on Advanced Care Planning- this involved researching the options available to individuals throughout end of life care, researching the main benefits of ACP, and formulating some plans to increase ACP within the county.

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

My biggest achievement was gaining confidence in the fact I have a versatile skill set that can be applied in different scenarios and in different lines of research to achieve strong outcomes.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I was able to help them promote internship opportunities within Healthwatch and allowed them to follow up on a previous report the published into end of life care.

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

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

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

My role was to coordinate the Tandem Language Exchange Programme. This involved promoting interest and involvement in the program through developing and marketing a number of activities and events.

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

This internship has given me the responsibility, experience and confidence in my abilities to approach employers secure in the knowledge that I can demonstrate practical work experience as well as relate my skills to situations where I’ve used them successfully in the course of this internship.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

As a student, I was able to relate more closely to fellow students than some of my colleagues in the language centre were. This meant that I was able to reach out to students in ways my colleagues were not aware of.

“The impact Chloe has had on the project has been very positive; she has taken a large degree of ownership and developed a good range of activities and events to promote Tandem learning” – Director of the Foreign Language Centre

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International Programmes Assistant – Teach A Man To Fish

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

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

I was involved in a wide range of tasks related to programme management, however the main activities I was involved in were:

  • creating a new safety and security policy framework, suitable for projects in insecure environments;
  • undertaking safety and security research in relation to a number of new projects;
  • liaising between my organisation and a number of other stakeholders to sort out details of new projects;
  • helping to create or amend materials for schools to use as part of the projects;
  • helping to oversee the organisation’s registration as an NGO in Uganda and Nicaragua; and
  • helping out with other general tasks, such as project monitoring and evaluation.

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

I ended up contacting and speaking with a very wide range of other organisations as part of my role (particularly as part of the safety and security research I undertook), from speaking to lawyers and to officials at the Ugandan Embassy, through to contacting NGOs and UN agencies working across Africa. I was given genuine responsibility over the course of the internship, which although daunting at first, was a great experience and helped to improve my confidence.

It was also a wonderful opportunity to gain professional experience in a foreign language, since a lot of the work I did was in French.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I helped the organisation by being diligent and hardworking, and thereby helping to reduce the workload for my colleagues at what was a busy and exciting time for the organisation due to a number of new projects being established.

The fact I was able to work in French was also of assistance.

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

I was lucky that there were not any major problems during my internship.
However, we were often working to tight deadlines, and on occasion I faced small problems in meeting these for work I had been delegated. For instance, sometimes I had sent documents off to be officially translated, and there would then be a delay in getting these documents back, which would have an impact on our ability continue the work and meet the deadline.

However, as a result of regular meetings and communication, my line manager was kept updated about the projects I was working on, and as such the slight delays we sometimes faced never ended up creating a significant problem.

Communications and Web Marketing Assistant – Development and Alumni Relations, University of Exeter

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

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

My role was to help with communications in the Development and Alumni Relations Office (DARO), including the website, social media and email comms, that meant my remit was everything from drafting news copy to editing the layout of the website. Extra duties included helping with large-scale Web Team projects and supporting other areas of DARO as well, for example designing print comms or working on overhauls of certain sections of the website.

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

My biggest achievement was diversifying my skillset. I learnt HTML and CSS, learnt how to use different software, how to write news copy and how to write for the web. I became more skilled with Photoshop and Excel, and gained loads of knowledge about communications in general. Coming from a Philosophy degree, this role definitely had an impact on how employable I am today.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

Alumni communications were maintained and developed well throughout my time there. Open rates for e-comms have not dropped, and social media remains very active. I also feel that I’ve been effective at supporting DARO in more ways than were described in the job description.

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

I didn’t have formal line management for a 3 month period, which was tough for my workload but a challenge that I feel that I managed well. I became more confident in myself.

“We took on Kieran to work with our Alumni team to support their communications and web activities. He took the role in his stride, developing new skills and showing real initiative with all tasks he was faced with. He became a valuable and well-liked member of the team who made an outstanding contribution in his time with us.” – Web Marketing Officer