Category Archives: Psychology

Student Case Study: The University of Exeter

Name of Student: Zoe King

Degree Subject: Psychology

Job Title: Student as Change Agent Intern 

Company Name: The University of Exeter 

Description of Organisation:  

The Strategic Support Team at the university have 3 opportunities for Students as Change Agents (SACA) Interns.  This is the University’s pathway for empowering students to actively improve the university experience for themselves and their peers via leadership and participation in a series of impactful change projects. The internships provide term-time projects on themes that are at the heart of the student experience. These include promoting community and engagement, the university’s approach to student communication and improving academic support.  

This role was part of the Student Campus Partnership (SCP) scheme, based in a local team in Exeter. 

Type of Internship:  

Student Campus Partnership (SCP) | Employer Engagement & Student Employment | University of Exeter  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship? 

My key responsibilities were gathering information on and developing tips on how students can utilise feedback. Also, I had to attend weekly meetings with supervisors. I provided a resource on helping students utilise feedback for Study Zone Digital from a Student Perspective. 

What was your biggest achievement on your internship? 

I gathered information from students and developed tips on how to utilise feedback. Then I produced a 900-word blog and an infographic to advertise the blog on how to utilise feedback from a student’s perspective. 

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?  

I made a poster with a link to a survey asking how students use feedback, but I was not allowed to put it up around campus as it did not follow the university branding guidelines, so I had to think of new ways to gather information. Instead, I sent out messages and ask people in person about feedback and managed to gather more than enough information. 

Skills Learnt:  

  • Communication  
  • Teamwork and Collaboration  
  • Problem Solving 
  • Organisation 
  • Time and Workload Management 
  • Strategic Planning 
  • Focus on Goals and Outcomes 
  • IT 
  • Decision Making 
  • Researching 

Attributes Developed: 

  • Commercial Awareness  
  • Confidence 
  • Initiative 
  • Motivation 
  • Personal Awareness 
  • Creative thinking 
  • Independence 
  • Work Ethic 
  • Professionalism 

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

From the beginning I was given a clear outline and a briefing sheet from my friendly supervisors on what was expected of me. I was given the option of making a blog/video/infographic but the beginning I wanted to do a blog as I enjoy writing, so I made a timeline of what needed to be done to help me plan and began gathering information from students so I could write the blog. I thoroughly enjoyed the 5 weeks, especially doing the blog and designing the infographic as the feedback was really positive when my supervisors read it. I would definitely work for the university again as I felt supported and empowered to take initiative. 

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Nicholas J. Moberly

Job Title: Senior Lecturer

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

Feedback:

“Our intern worked as a research assistant on a psychophysiological experiment, helped to recruit participants to recruitment target, test them and also trained another intern to run the experiment and process psychophysiological data. Intern also processed, collated and archived all data.

The internship provided a very valuable experience in working with an enthusiastic and conscientious student to deliver a research project in a timely manner. This allowed me to complete work on a timescale that would otherwise have taken many more months, and therefore to deliver a research grant efficiently. The intern had already worked on the project (as an undergraduate) previously and so were able to continue where they left off and further develop their skills, while increasing their skills in people and time management. I hope that they have found the experience as useful and interesting as I have.”

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: Communications Coordinator and Research Assistant (UofE)

Name of Student:  Poppy Oliva Mary Cheeseman

Degree Subject:  Applied Psychology (Clinical) MSci

Job Title: Communications Coordinator and Research Assistant

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship: Access to Internships (A2I)

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

As Communications Coordinator:

– Assisted with focus group discussions and communications with community partners, for a new smartphone study involving homeless individuals (SPACES study)

As Research Assistant:

– Contribute to the design of a smartphone application for tracking daily life activities and experiences among homeless individuals (SPACES study)
– Preparing study materials (including questionnaires, participant instructions; SPACES study and Affect Retrospect study)
– Writing and creating materials for the ethics application of the SPACES study
– Organizing and coding study data, assisting with data management (SPACES study and Affect Retrospect study)
– Collecting and organising research papers to include in a literature review study about the discrimination machine learning can provide between speech samples of participants with different neurocognitive disorders

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

First, I created two documents containing organisations relating to homeless charities from an extensive search. In addition to gathering potential collaborators who are interested in the field of homelessness from all universities in London and academics at the University of Exeter.
I worked heavily on the ethics application for the SPACES study, including creating supporting documents such as the information sheet, consent form and debriefing form.
I conducted my own analysis of data from a previous study with the aim to examine this data for conclusions that can be drawn from this data and how this may inform future projects.
I also created a large bank of extracted research articles to be included in a literature review related to how machine learning can be used to detect features of various neurocognitive disorders based on spoken language.
I would definitely say I developed greater confidence in approaching research and working in a scientific and academic field. Going into the internship I was a little overwhelmed by the tasks I would have to do and I remember doubting whether my input would be up to the standard my internship supervisor was expecting, but throughout the internship she provided excellent advice, encouragement and support that greatly improved my experience.
I also was able to improve my report writing skills and analytic skills in a much more practical and applied manner, Throughout my degree I use these skills but they are restricted to coursework that is set that doesn’t really apply well to the context of what I would be expected to write if I were to actually be working in a research or scientific field. This internship provided me the chance to actually do this which was a valuable learning experience.
I would say that my biggest achievement for this internship was simply knowing that I can do well in this type of work. I was hesitant to even apply for the funding to do this internship as I wasn’t sure how up to the task I would be, but I feel I performed well and that my work and contributions were to a good standard.

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

On a psychological level I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to complete the work at a satisfactory level. I overcame this by ignoring my misgivings and just attempting the work as best as I can and being prepared to accept any and all feedback and ensure I made the internship a learning experience and used the feedback I received to improve. I ensured I actually paid attention to positive feedback rather than glossing over it to just look at the improvements so that I would actually overcome my lack of confidence.

I found that the experience helped me with clarity of communication. My task was to draw conclusions from a pre-existing dataset my internship supervisor had collected which presented a challenge of organising this information in a way where another person could read my conclusions and how I’d arrived at them. I had to think carefully about the process I had taken to the data and think about how I could describe this process simply and logically. In the end I complied all of my findings into a single report that was accessible for someone who had not gone through the process of analysing the data themselves.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Networking
  • Organisation
  • Focus on Goals and Outcomes
  • Leadership
  • Strategic Planning

Attributes Developed:

  • Logical thinking
  • Independence
  • Work Ethic
  • Motivation
  • Perseverance

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

“My internship was thoroughly enjoyable, made possible by my amazing supervisor who provided an engaging, challenging (in a good way), and fun internship experience. The internship provided me an opportunity to consider a career in this field as well as relevant experience for such a job. The process of applying and organising the internship was easy to do, allowing literally anyone to be able to make use of the scheme I applied through. The process of allowing us to seek out and create our own internship enables us to demonstrate our own initiative to seek out our own learning experiences and rewards us for this. I’m not sure if this scheme was available to me last year but now that I’ve completed this one I wish, if this was something I could have done last year, that I had done it last year as well as this year.”

Student Case Study: University of Exeter

Name of Student:  Anda Solea

Degree Subject: MSC Social & Organisational Psychology

Job Title: SCP Research Intern in Social Psychology

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship: Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs)  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Write articles, create surveys, recruit participants, analyse data, report data, write the methods section, write open science framework documents, have weekly meetings and give my feedback on previous work

What outputs and outcomes did you deliver for your employer?

Outputs=collected & analysed data, wrote reports and journal article sections, wrote and designed articles, created and edited surveys.

Ouctomes= did 2 studies(double the amount we expected), created documents for publication in a journal, I will be a co-author of the paper, advanced knowledge on the topic  

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

While working as a psychology research intern I has to design a study from start to finish. I worked weekly, in collaboration and alone. I learnt how to use new software and improved my research skills. As a result we managed to create, run and publish two studies and my supervisor was very happy with my work.

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

I didn’t know how to run certain statistical tests. I asked my co-worker for advice and then researched the tests on the internet and in the end I learnt how to do them and overcame the challenge.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Problem Solving
  • Communication
  • IT
  • Degree Specific

Attributes Developed:

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

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

“I have achieved a lot during this internship. I have bettered my research skills and learnt a lot about what goes behind “real” research. This was particularly helpful for me as I am starting my PhD in October and I plan to stay in academia and work in research and thus this intership has been a hard start for my career.”

 

Student Case Study:  Colab- Resilient Women’s Project

Name of Student:  Jane Curmi

Degree Subject: BSC Sociology and Criminology

Job Title:  Resilient women project intern

Company Name:  Colab – Resilient Women’s Project

Type of Internship:  Access to Internships (A2I)

Description of Company: As an integrated cross sector wellbeing and innovation hub our goal is to improve lives by improving the context in which support for change occurs, as well as delivering meaningful and relevant services. Supporting people with complex life situations and multiple disadvantages, such as mental ill-health, homelessness, domestic and sexual violence and abuse, substance misuse, (re)offending and poverty we focus our support around recovery, belonging, rehabilitation and wellbeing.

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Support the facilitation and delivery of a range of initiatives, working with the team to support women in the Criminal Justice System and those with complex needs, support resilient women’s project navigator scheme to offer direct pathway planning to women in the Criminal Justice System, support the delivery of resilient women financial abuse project training sessions, supporting the women’s sex worker project, take part in team meetings, learning opportunities and presentations, write findings and recommendations for future development as part of my placement requirement.

 

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

I was asked to support the women’s sex workers project; the resilient women’s project was awarded Tampon Tax funding to undertake a further scoping exercise which would include gaining the views of women themselves and were awarded a really small pot of funding. The aim is to inform health and other social policy makers of what the needs are and how women want them to be addressed, with a view to looking at how to further support women in this situation. I was asked by the project manager to look over evidence that was already collected to familiarise myself with the project. I done this and I also spent some time researching recent literature on the subject, then worked out a plan of how the project aims could be met. I researched links that could be involved in the Exeter area and composed various emails and sent it to links that could have some knowledge of women sex workers in the Exeter area. this received a response from SWARM in London who gave me a contact link in Exeter University. I arranged a meeting with my manager, the contact and I. This meeting was successful and provided the resilient women’s project at Exeter University.

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

In general, my internship was very successful, the only thing I can say that did not go very well was when I was co-facilitating a course and a women turned up half way through the course and asked to take part. I felt that on instinct I should let her join the group. however, when reflecting afterwards I should have asked a senior member of staff as the women who attend these groups have multiple complex needs and I felt I may have let someone join and the situation could of changed and I would not be able to handle it. I discussed my feelings with my manager afterwards and came to the conclusions that in the future when a women turns up and the course has already started that she not be allowed to participate for the safety of the other attendees. This made me reflect on making quick decisions, I will in future be aware what the of making quick decisions and what the repercussions of that may be. 

Skills Learnt

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • Strategic Planning
  • Customer Service
  • Leadership

Attributes Developed

  • Creative thinking
  • Confidence
  • Initiative
  • Perseverance
  • Motivation

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

“Colab is a dynamic place to work, I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement and I have been given work opportunities and experience I would not normally have access to. This internship has provided me with the experience I need to complete my studies and further my career.”

Employer Quote:

“Jane has been an exemplary student whilst working with the project.  She slotted into the team really naturally and went above and beyond the objectives set when needed.   I would like to thank Jane and the University for enabling this really interesting internship to take place.”

Student Case Study: University of Exeter: Child Health Group – Institute for Health Research    

Name of Student:  Rebecca Bates

Degree Subject: Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery

Job Title: Research Assistant

Company Name: University of Exeter: Child Health Group – Institute for Health Research

Type of Internship: Access to Internships (A2I) 

Description of Company: The Child Health and Wellbeing Research Network brings together researchers across the University of Exeter that conduct research in the area of children’s health and wellbeing. The network spans many of the University’s colleges and represents 13 different groups, all with related work in this important field of enquiry. It was formed to ensure that strong collaboration and inter-disciplinary thinking and skills are at the heart of the research conducted, for the benefit of children and young people.

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

My key duties and responsibilities during my internship were research data analysis, report writing, proofreading and preparing a conference presentation.

What outputs and outcomes did you deliver for your employer?

I presented our research at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s annual conference. I also began work on national paper grown from the data analysis done on local data (I will be an author on the former, and lead author of the latter) – up to two PubMed papers can be taken into account during the Foundation Application process (the process you must undertake to be allocated a job after medical school), and being able to work on two so early will mean that I will have these reviewed and published by the time I am applying.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

Situation: Annual conference of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health

Task: Presenting the research and data I had been working on

Actions: Preparing presentation, trial run with research team for feedback,

Result: Successful presentation in which I “didn’t seem like a medical student”, including two contacts made after which will hopefully lead to research links. This will also be relevant all the way through to my specialty applications as I have now presented at a national conference.

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

I was very lucky in that no major challenges spring to mind, and any small queries and blips were well handled by my supportive supervisor – even down to worrying about the cost of travel to the conference resulting in this being covered by the team.

I had been worried my ADHD would preclude me from being successful in research but the structure the team provided meant that I was able to meet crucial deadlines such as being prepared for the conference and succeed in a way I could not have imagined at the start of my degree.

Skills Learnt 

  •  Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • Time and Work Load Management
  • Strategic Planning
  • Focus on Goals and Outcomes

Attributes Developed 

  • Personal awareness
  • Cultural awareness
  • Logical thinking
  • Creative thinking
  • Independence

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

“My internship has helped me truly accept that there can be a place for me in research, as someone with ADHD – a dream I thought I’d have to give up when I first realised that not everything comes as easy to me as it does to others. It also meant I could afford to take the time to get my presentation right, and play a significant role in the writing of the paper, based on my data analysis – meaning I could see it through from beginning to end. I am so grateful for the opportunity and hope I can find a way to afford to continue this journey.”

Student Case Study:  Mental Health Intern

Name of Student: Emerald Hughes

Degree Subject: BA Archaeology 

Job Title: Mental Health Intern

Company Name: Young Devon

Type of Internship: Access to Internships (A2I)

Description of Company: Young Devon is the largest young people’s charity in the South West. Our mission is to make Devon a better place for all young people. Each year we work with over 2,000 young people, building quality relationships to help them thrive.

  1. What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

I had a variety of roles including supporting my manager in the development and running of a social media campaign called Minds That Matter. This included building a website and creating social media/website content, as well as scheduling posts and attending project meetings. In addition to this I took up the role on Mentor, and currently have two mentees who I will continue to work with following the completion of my A2I internship for free as I enjoy this role greatly.

  1. What outputs and outcomes did you deliver for your employer?

I created a website and a vast amount of social media content which is ready to be put out over the next month. I collected a series of mental health stories from young people which are being placed online periodically.

  1. What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

My success with my mentees, this has really helped with my career prospects and has allowed me an invaluable insight into working in mental health. I believe this has helped me understand the difficulties of working with vulnerable individuals.             

  1. Skills Learnt 
  • Teamwork and collaboration
  • Communication
  • Ability to work under pressure
  • Time and work load management
  • Strategic planning 
  1. Attributes Developed 
  • Confidence
  • Personal awareness
  • Cultural awareness
  • Motivation
  • Professionalism
  1. Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector? 

“I would not have been able to afford to have given this time voluntarily and therefore receiving help from the A2I fund was of great value to me. The application process was simple for both me and my employer, and once my employment had begun there was little else to worry about. My internship has really helped better my career prospects and given me a great insight into the field. Since graduating in 2019 I’ve gone on to be employed full time at Young Devon. The internship that I had there gave me a great foot in the door and I’ve now been working there for almost a year and am loving the role.”

Devon and Cornwall OPCC -Employer Case Study

Name of Organisation: Devon and Cornwall OPCC

Description of Organisation:  The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner is a non-political, impartial organisation and its head of paid service is the chief executive officer. The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner is a separate organisation to Devon and Cornwall Police. It fits into several categories such as strategy, policy and performance, Criminal justice, commissioning and partnerships, collaborations, and national activity as well as, many more. The Police and Crime Commissioner is to be the voice of the people in policing.

Name of Employer: Andrew Kirchin

Job Title: Communications and Engagement Manager

Internship Scheme used:  GBP

Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) – Employment Services – University of Exeter

Feedback:

We employed an intern to work within our office of the police and crime commissioner. The GBP became a valued member of the team very quickly and showed her worth. She worked hard in the workplace and made a great impact on our organisation. We were very impressed with her work so we have extended her internship with us and we would also like to offer her a full-time contract too.

This is the third intern I have brought into my team and, in all the fifth into the office. All have made a fantastic impact, and all have been offered a full-time roll as a result. Bringing in bright, ambitious individuals has changed the dynamic of the office for the better in a way I have seldom seen in the public sector.

I would just like to say that, yet again, the standard of applicant we attracted through the University’s Graduate Business Partnership was outstanding. All three passed the threshold for appointment at interview. We were very impressed with the way the chosen candidate presented herself. She was a credit to whatever work the University does to prepare students for this next stage of their lives. I would highly recommend the University of Exeter’s internship team and we will continue to use this brilliant service.

 

Travel Behaviour Analyst – Devon Country Council

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

  1. Completion of survey with shared path users and other contacts via email and social media including promotion by Devon County Council.
  2.  Research into other share this space guidance/information.
  3. Report and presentation recommending how project could develop, awareness

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

My biggest achievement has been having the confidence to approach strangers and persuade them to pause their walk/cycle to talk to me about the shared space provisions across Exeter and Devon. Then, as I was representing the DCC, fielding questions about unrelated complaints which the public had. I have also had to create a report and deliver a presentation on my findings from this week in front of a large group of industry experts, which tested my presentational skills.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

The feedback on the Exe Estuary Trail that we collected provided valuable evidence that the initiative is working, and that people understand the message. We highlighted key areas for improvement, whether physically along the trail, or with the existing signage. This sort of data hasn’t been collected yet, as the council couldn’t spare staff members for it, and so they are exceedingly grateful to have had us working on it this week- even if it was only for a few days.

 What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Problem solving, customer service, assessing and managing risk

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Motivation, logical thinking, work ethic