Category Archives: Employer Feedback

Employer Case Study: Commercial Marketing Team, University of Exeter

Name of Organisation: Commercial Marketing Team, University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Kate Durward-Akhurst

Job Title: Marketing Manager

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

Feedback:

“The insights provided by the student were invaluable, proving a students point of view on areas pertinent to the work we are trying to do. Her ability to quickly analyse and sort information, particularly market research or website and communication tools has been impressive. She has needed very little assistance and once given a task has been able to run with it, developing the work and delivering on time.

Our intern’s inputs and point of view as a current student that are extremely helpful- being able to see things through her eyes and understand how we can improve our communications with student because of that.

Excellent internship! Invaluable, incredibly eye-opening and most definitely worthwhile.”

 

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter – History

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter – History

Name of Employer: Ryan Hanley

Job Title: Lecturer in Modern British History

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

Feedback:

“Our GBPs produced a database of race relations reports published in the UK. This will form the basis of a new research thread, including a planned PhD studentship and public-facing database. Discussions are underway with the National Archives to realise the next stage of the project.

Both interns were more successful in identifying and cataloguing the report than we anticipated – the database now has over 600 entries, with many more leads still to come. This represents an impressive feat of research in itself, and it will lay the foundation for a major new academic project.

The students were invaluable members of the team: motivated, committed, and able to work independently towards the objectives. They even helped to define the parameters of the research project we were working on. The internships team were likewise fantastic.

While I could not offer my interns a job at the end of the project, I am more than happy to provide them with references and encouraged them both to consider pursuing research as a career. I’m very happy to note that one of them is moving into a Policy Advisor role at the end of the summer – I like to think this project gave her some useful experience to discuss in the interview!”

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: Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery

Name of Organisation: Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery

Name of Employer: Lara Goodband

Job Title: Contemporary Art Curator & Programmer

Internship Scheme used: Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) , 

Feedback:

“Our intern delivered on a number targets. She created new material for exhibitions and developed new partnerships.

All elements of the exhibition ‘In Plain Sight: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Exeter and Devon’ was amazing and the intern’s work on this was fantastic

The student has proved to be indispensable and will be much missed. I have enjoyed managing her. “

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 Lab Work

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Robert Ellis

Job Title: Senior Lecturer

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

Feedback:

“The intern specifically worked on developing a theoretical model for sex change in hermaphroditic aquatic species. This is highly novel and is contributing to a larger area of work our lab group are developing. This helped the intern familiarise themselves with the project, and set the foundation to develop a possible PhD project proposal together over the coming 12 months.

Their successful integration to the team and contribution to the wider goals of the team. The delivery of a comprehensive protocol to assess the content in the lab

This was a really positive experience, and also provided a highly beneficial development experience for a PhD student within our lab who was able to mentor the intern during their placement.

The internship scheme has been very straightforward and I would certainly use it again.”

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.”