Category Archives: Employer Feedback

Employer Case Study – University of Exeter CLES

Education, Teaching and Research, Employer Feedback, Sport and Health Sciences, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , , ,

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter CLES

Description of Organisation: With over 4,100 students including over 280 international students from around the world, the College of Life and Environmental Sciences prides itself in being a vibrant community supported by excellent research and teaching across a number of related disciplines. Our areas of expertise span Biosciences, Geography, Psychology, and Sport and Health Sciences.

Name of Employer: Alan Barker

Job Title: Associate Professor in Paediatric Physiology and Health

Internship Scheme used:  Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs) ,  CLES Research Internship

Feedback:

“The interns worked on research related projects with an external partner, England Athletics. Their key outputs included three, two hour workshops with over 20 stakeholders to discuss the development of an injury prevention tool. As well as, producing six infographics to be used as part of the Youth Talent Programme run by England Athletics. They also were developing a testing battery to be used as part of the recruitment process for the Youth Talent Programme and then wrote up their findings and produced this into a written document. On their internship work they also presented an oral presentation about their findings to their research group.

The interns were excellent across the piece and formed an important part of our research group team. They were able to complete tasks in a timely and effective manner and were confident to use their initiative to solve problems and make decisions. Importantly, they also had excellent inter-personal skills, and fitted straight into the research team. We will miss having the interns working with us. Overall, the internship was a huge success.”

Employer Case Study: RAMM

Administration, Charity and Development Work, Degree subject, Education, Teaching and Research, Employer Feedback, Graduate Business Partnership (GBP), History, Internship Schemes, Law, Sector, Social Guidance and Community Work, , , ,

Name of Organisation: RAMM

Description of Organisation: RAMM will enhance people’s quality of life. It’s a place of discovery which encourages everyone to be curious. RAMM uses its local and global collections to connect people to the world and inspires them to shape a better future.

Name of Employer: Sophie Harbour

Job Title: Engagement Officer (Skills Development)

Internship Scheme used: Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) 

Feedback:

“Our intern’s main responsibilities were coordinating the Lost Words Exhibition, ‘What’s on Guides’ and coordinating our school visits programme. He also provided administrative support such as, organising meetings, minute taking, raising purchase orders, providing a central point of contact for the Audience Development Lead.

Our graduate was also a massive help when providing marketing assistance, including researching websites, writing copy, email marketing, implementing marketing campaigns, uploading content to websites. He assisted with the execution of events and activities within the museum and art gallery to include Gerald’s Birthday and the Lates events.

The research skills our GBP gathered from RAMM’s Customer Relationship Management System and booking system as well as from visitor surveys and other sources was completed to a very high standard.

The student was a great member of our team for the 18 months of his internship. He approached his role with enthusiasm and commitment and always had a fantastic ‘can do’ attitude. He also brought a different perspective to our organisation which was really useful when thinking about marketing and social media to our wide range of audiences.”

Employer Case Study: Cornwall Wildlife Trust

Access to Internships (A2I), Animal Care, Biosciences, Charity and Development Work, Employer Feedback, Environmental Work, Internship Schemes, Sector, , ,

Name of Organisation: Cornwall Wildlife Trust

Description of Organisation:

Cornwall Wildlife Trust is one of 46 Wildlife Trusts working across the UK. With the invaluable support of our volunteers, members and corporate supporters we manage over 50 nature reserves, including an island for wildlife and people in Cornwall. We also work with other organisations and landowners to protect and connect wildlife sites across the county and inspire local communities and young people to care for wildlife where they live.

We want to create safe havens in which wildlife can thrive and from which it can spread. We need to inspire people to love and care for the natural environment, and enable more people to experience, enjoy and understand it. We are a charity and rely on membership, legacy gifts and donations from our supporters and on the efforts of our 300 regular volunteers to help us make Cornwall wilder. Our vision is to bring about a Nature Recovery Network to bring back Cornwall’s wildlife.

Name of Employer: Abigail Crosby

Job Title: Marine Conservation Officer

Internship Scheme used: Access to Internships (A2I)

Feedback:

“Our intern became an extremely valued member of the team, as she efficiently carried out her duties within the Marine Stranding’s Network project. As a result of her work, the project now has a well-recognized and highly followed social media presence including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

She also played a key role in the production of our annual 2019 MSN report. She helped process thousands of MSN records. The student created several monthly Mailchimp newsletters to help communicate with our network of trained volunteers. I also really appreciated the intern assisting me with the training days, it was a massive help. A huge thank you to our intern for her fantastic work.

I would highly recommend the internship schemes The University of Exeter has to offer. The process was fairly effortless and for little administration we were able to support a fantastic student who carried out some incredibly useful work for the Trust. She was a brilliant support to the team, and we are very grateful for her time.”

Employer Case Study: QWERTY Beer Box

Access to Internships (A2I), Advertising, Marketing and PR, Business and Management, Degree subject, Economics, Employer Feedback, Hospitality and Event Management, Internship Schemes, Retail, Sector, , , ,

Name of Organisation: QWERTY Beer Box

Description of Organisation: QWERTY Beer Box is a year one University of Exeter startup, formed in March 2020 to give independent breweries the national recognition they deserve. We’ve since put together 4 independent craft beer selections (Best of the Cotswolds, Devon, Bristol and Wales), partnered with over 40 breweries, worked with numerous high profile corporate clients and sold over 1500 QWERTY Beer Boxes. In 2021 we are looking to triple our 2020 annual sales, export British craft beer to the EU and explore numerous other sales channels.

Name of Employer: Quinn Leatherbarrow-Stokes

Job Title: Co Founder

Internship Scheme used: Access to Internships (A2I),  Student Business Partnerships (SBPs) 

Feedback:

Together with the intern we were able to define a project that would entail discovering and pursuing incremental sales opportunities in the B2B market across the Southwest (Devon, Cornwall & The Cotswolds). They became an expert in this area of the business and were able to add value to the overall business. Although not leading directly to immediate sales it has paved the way for future expansion and we are in the process of bringing them back on board come September.

Given the results achieved and the attitude and talent demonstrated by the student I do not think there are any obvious improvements. One aspect that I did find helped the relationship was that I was a student at the University of Exeter last year and so was aware of other commitments and we were able to work together on this.

The A2I team have been amazing. They worked with us to put together a job listing and advertised it to the talented students at the University of Exeter. We had a shortlist of students and were able to find someone who was perfect for the role. The student themselves added significant value to the QWERTY Beer Box team and business and gave us the extra capacity to pursue incremental opportunities.

Employer Case Study: Procura Consulting 

Employer Feedback, Environmental Work, Green Consultants, Internship Schemes, Management and Consultancy, Sector, , , ,

Name of Organisation: Procura Consulting

Description of Organisation: Procura Consulting is a boutique management consultancy firm specialising in procurement and supply chain optimisation. Our consultants work closely with all kinds of organisations to improve their profitability by identifying, delivering and maintaining savings in procurement expenditure.

Founded in 2016 we have grown rapidly fuelled by a compelling service offer to clients and a commitment to the highest standards of professionalism and operational excellence. Our success has been recognised with recent nominations for the Management Consultancy Association’s “Best New Consultancy” and “Commercial Excellence” awards.

Name of Employer:  Luke Abbott

Job Title: Manager

Internship Scheme used: Green Consultants 

Feedback:

“We recruited an intern from the Green Consultant scheme to help develop our Sustainable Procurement service. We are developing a new service that focuses on helping organisations become more sustainable by utilising their procurement function and supply chain.

Our intern researched sustainable solutions and suppliers in different areas of spend, for example, IT and completed completed a number of internal projects focusing on the sustainability of Procura as a business and formulated some great ideas for our sustainable procurement service.

She was a fantastic intern who really took initiative in tasks. Her passion for sustainability is clear. We asked the student to come back and work for us, we offered her a one-month internship in October this year to continue her great work which she accepted. I expect we will offer her another internship or possibly a graduate role once our Sustainable Procurement service is up and running.”

Employer Case Study:  Jurassic Fibre Ltd

Employer Feedback, Environmental Work, Green Consultants, Information Technology, Management and Consultancy, Sector, , , ,

Name of Organisation:  Jurassic Fibre Ltd

Description of Organisation: Jurassic was founded by CEO Michael Maltby, a resident of Sidmouth in East Devon. Michael has built fibre and similar networks around the world, including in Russia and the Caribbean, and his goal is to build the digital infrastructure you deserve to support your lifestyle in the 21st Century.

Jurassic Fibre is part of the Fern Trading Group, and has substantial funds available to deliver a top quality fibre broadband network for the South West. We are planning to invest over £250m into building a fibre network in Devon, Dorset and Somerset, passing over 300,000 homes, making gigabit speeds a reality.

With the valued support of our partners – who together form a world-class supply chain to deliver fibre to the region – we started to build in 2019, with continued growth always on the horizon.

Name of Employer:  Gillian Huppler

Job Title: SHEQ Manager

Internship Scheme used: Green Consultants 

Feedback:

“We recruited an intern to work as a Green Consultant. They provided us with a report identifying JFL strengths, weaknesses, opportunities to improve and potential threats associated with current compliance. He gave us an overview of what competitors are doing and gave us recommendations. He used our auditing tool (iAuditor) and build useful audit formats which will enable us to monitor compliance and track our performance.

I was hoping to get the student involved in review our waste management but the manager involved had been given an important task and was not forthcoming with the information. Our intern handled this well and we discussed other objectives, he got on very well with the change of plan.

I would have been more than happy to offer our intern a role if there was one available and I will be discussing this with CEO to see if there is any future opportunities.

The student provided us with some extremely useful information which will add value to our business. He was professional, pleasant, enthusiastic and would be a great asset to any company. He worked well in the office and on site talking to the civils teams undertaking excavations. Our intern provided us with a useful presentation to enable our company to understand our opportunities for improvement and developed useful tools for monitoring progress, which is amazing as we only had him for 35 hours. If this is the quality of Students Exeter can provide, we will definitely be looking to repeat this in the future.”

Employer Case Study: Adaero Precision Components Ltd 

Employer Feedback, Environmental Work, Green Consultants, Internship Schemes, Management and Consultancy, Sector, , , ,

Name of Organisation:  Adaero Precision Components Ltd

Description of Organisation: We were founded in 1988 and, since January 2015, have been part of the Indutrade group. Adaero is a specialist manufacturer of high precision components, engineered to customer specifications. We aspire to be first choice for companies who require high quality finished parts ready for assembly at competitive prices. We invest in state of the art machine tools and continually improve what we do so that we supply machined parts of genuine excellence. Our skilled and experienced team continually innovate to meet customers’ changing needs.

Name of Employer:  David Smith

Job Title: Finance Manager

Internship Scheme used: Green Consultants 

Feedback:

“We recruited an intern to work as a Green Consultant. The intern comprehensively reviewed our environmental impact and provided a report which recommended a range of actions. Our final action plan takes on most of the actions recommended by the intern, with a small few overridden by commercial factors. The vast majority of his recommendations will be put in place.

We got value from this internship and will explore further graduate roles, probably covering other priority aspects of our business. The internship provided very useful independent review of our own initiatives, giving us a fresh and well-informed pair of eyes to evaluate where we had left gaps. The intern was eloquent, influential and professional.”

Employer Case Study: The Royal Albert Memorial Museum

Employer Feedback, Environmental Work, Green Consultants, Internship Schemes, Management and Consultancy, , , ,

Name of Organisation:  The Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery

Description of Organisation: The Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) is one of Britain’s finest regional museums and a flagship service of Exeter City Council. Its displays showcase world-class collections and collectors that tell the story of Exeter and Devon from the prehistoric to the present.

Name of Employer:  Sophie Harbour

Job Title: Engagement Officer (Skills Development)

Internship Scheme used:  Green Consultants

Feedback:

“We recruited two interns to work as Green Consultants.

One of our interns spent a week researching RAMM’s waste management and following her this developed:

  • A sustainable agenda for waste management across the RAMM’s services, notably in relation to recycling of staff, shop, and café waste.
  • A focus on taking forward the Green Champion initiative and making suggestions for reducing single use plastic waste.
  • A more formal sustainable policy for the RAMM’s shop based on their verbal policy which is printable and can be shared with customers.

Our other intern researched potential methods of making RAMM’s museum building more energy efficient, more specifically by;

  • Using energy assessment tools to identify key problem areas in addition to those suggested by staff (insulation, open space and lighting)
  • Identifying key sustainability solutions to increase energy efficiency of the RAMM building by looking at new technology such as BEMS and best practice from similar buildings
  • Suggesting solutions should be effective at increasing energy efficiency, be financially affordable as well as practically feasible in terms of implementation for a grade II listed building.

This internship was a real success. We didn’t find there were any aspects that didn’t go well. Both interns did a fantastic job with their research and the outcomes will be used in the future. The outcomes of which we will use to inform future funding applications in order to implement some of this work.”

Employer Case Study: EFFECT Photonics Ltd (2)

Employer Feedback, Environmental Work, Green Consultants, Information Technology, Management and Consultancy, , , ,

Name of Organisation:  EFFECT Photonics Ltd

Description of Organisation: EFFECT Photonics have been shaping the future of photonics by interconnecting humanity through fast, affordable, sustainable, and effective communication technologies. The emergence of DWDM is one of the most innovative and important phenomena in the development of fibre optic communication technology. From both technical and economical perspectives, the ability to provide the world potentially unlimited data transmission capacity and bandwidth is a massive advantage of our DWDM technology.

Name of Employer:  Tim Durrant

Job Title: Engineering Manager

Internship Scheme used: Green Consultants

“The green consultant student was tasked with providing a top level briefing for a gap analysis of our high tech start up business for plans to achieve ISO14001 in 2021. With her we worked up a plan for surveying the business though all the main stake holders. This work was then followed through and an excellent Executive Summary report with appendices showing main points for 14001, with linkage to ISO9001 (which we are working on this year). A very useful foundation document setting the scene for the future. The intern fully fulfilled the brief and even exceeded it by linking across to ISO9001.

The student worked flexibly and coped well with working around her exams and the additional challenges of Covid19. We had no issues and highly recommend the Green Consultants Scheme.”

Employer Case Study: EFFECT Photonics Ltd 

Employer Feedback, Environmental Work, Green Consultants, Management and Consultancy, Sector, , , ,

Name of Organisation:  EFFECT Photonics Ltd

Description of Organisation: EFFECT Photonics have been shaping the future of photonics by interconnecting humanity through fast, affordable, sustainable, and effective communication technologies. The emergence of DWDM is one of the most innovative and important phenomena in the development of fibre optic communication technology. From both technical and economical perspectives, the ability to provide the world potentially unlimited data transmission capacity and bandwidth is a massive advantage of our DWDM technology.

Name of Employer:  Tim Durrant

Job Title: Engineering Manager

Internship Scheme used: Green Consultants

“We recruited an intern to work as a Green Consultant. She took part in various tasks which were completed excellently. They really helped with moving the business forward, this was then followed by a very effective hand over to the three month intern from the Sustainability Hub in Plymouth.

The Internship from Green Consultants at Exeter proved very valuable. It allowed some high quality focussed support to be brought to bear and accelerate the environmental policies and practices of EFFECT Photonics Ltd forward. The prior knowledge, enthusiasm, willingness to learn as well as contribute followed by an effective hand over for follow on will have a lasting positive impact on the business. Thank you.”