Category Archives: Social Guidance and Community Work

Employer Case Study: RJ Working CIO

Name of Organisation: RJ Working CIO – a charity for children and young people

Name of Employer: Deborah Mitchell

Job Title: CEO

Internship Scheme used: Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:                        

“Katelyn joined us as an intern specialising in PR and communications. Our organisation is very dynamic and fast-moving and she has found her place in that and made a lot of contributions joining things up. She has been critical to the launch and development of our website, our twitter developing use of Twitter and our events management. In July Katelyn was central for 2 events – co-ordinating our Tenth Birthday Party celebration, hosted at Trebah Garden, and a Together For Justice event for young people in which she played a leading role. Katelyn has also been central to our Climate Action Group, helping to co-ordinate, noting meetings,

Katelyn’s teamwork and leadership of our Together for Justice conference /event in July was a huge achievement. Also contributing proactively to our organisational culture, in ways that are very important at a time of growth. She understands the nuances and is a skilled communicator and has a strong understanding of both task and process.

Katelyn has been exposed to the hectic nature of a small organisation at a time of growth and development, and the non-linear nature of our offer to a segmented market. She has embraced all the learning opportunities on offer and has shown her capability of developing her skills set in response to a variety of challenges, We have seen her grow in confidence and initiative and take on increasing responsibilities within the team.”

Employer Case Study: RAMM

Name of Organisation: Royal Albert Memorial Museum

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: Nicki McCaskie

Job Title: Marketing and Communications Officer

Internship Scheme used: Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) , 

Feedback:

“Our intern ran a campaign for us, Treasures of the Museum, which was highly successful at getting families into RAMM and engaging with our collections through a museum trail. Treasures of the Museum was part of a wider summer campaign which resulted in RAMM achieving over 140% of predicted visits for the summer period. Our social media audiences & engagement stats have also increased over all platforms during our interns time with us, including over 1000 more Twitter followers. Our Instagram channel has greatly improved with high quality posts and regular Instagram stories.

Thanks to an award application written by our incredible intern, RAMM is a finalist in this year’s Devon Tourism Awards for the Ethical, Responsible and Sustainable Tourism Award category. Internally, our Audience Development meetings are now more organised and better-recorded thanks to our intern’s planning skills and note-taking.

Our intern has been excellent; she settled into our team straight away, and has become a valued member over the past 15 months. She responded well to challenges presented by the pandemic, working flexibly and solving problems as they arose. We were extremely impressed by her creativity, her communication skills, her dedication to the role and her passion for the museum.”

Student Case Study: Wellbeing Services at University of Exeter

Name of Student:  Nina Warren

Degree Subject: Sociology

Job Title:  Wellbeing Intern

Company Name:  Wellbeing Services at University of Exeter

Type of Internship:  Access to Internships (A2I)

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Offering the student perspective and feedback on the many elements of the service (providing stakeholder feedback), undertaking research for projects and campaigns within Wellbeing, working with other staff members on projects, and researching and speaking with other university Wellbeing departments to compare and share ideas for service improvement

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

My biggest achievement was probably the research report I produced on supporting Chinese international students at UK universities. I did a lot of reading around this and spoke to a few other universities, and the report I produced was thorough and I received feedback from several colleagues that it was interesting and enlightening and had a few requests for them to send on the report to other colleagues. This was my favourite piece of work as I found it fascinating and enjoyable and the end product was clearly valued by my colleagues, which really increased my confidence, too. Overall, my main personal achievements were an increase in initiative and independence, and increased confidence.

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

Mainly I would say working remotely was difficult for me and on days when I was tired I could become more easily distracted at home than if I had been working in person. I overcame this by scheduling catch-up meetings whenever possible, as these meetings kept me motivated, on-track and accountable, and broke up the day.
I also set myself to-do lists that included very small and manageable steps, so that rather than feeling overwhelmed by seemingly large tasks and therefore feeling demotivated, my work felt much more achievable.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Organisation
  • Researching
  • Time and Work Load Management
  • Strategic Planning
  • Communication

Attributes Developed:

  • Creative thinking
  • Independence
  • Initiative
  • Confidence
  • Professionalism

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

My internship experience has been (and still is, as we have agreed to an extension of my internship!) really enlightening and helpful for me. It has increased my understanding of university Wellbeing services, an area I was interested in exploring as a career, and has confirmed to me it that student support is a career path that I am interested in taking. I was made to feel so welcome and relaxed by the staff at Wellbeing and from the get-go I felt valued and encouraged by everybody I work with. This helped me to relax into my work and reduced the pressure. I was given the space to grow and work at my own pace, which was motivating and enjoyable, and has helped me to produce work that both I and my colleagues are proud of. It has been an excellent experience. I am excited to have secured a part time extension with the team.

Student Case Study: Court House Care Home

Name of Student:  Lauren Freer

Degree Subject: BA Geography

Type of Internship: Green Consultants Scheme

Company Name: Court House Care Home

Job Title: Green Consultant

Description Of Company: HC-One is a care home group. HC-One’s mission is to be the first choice care home for Residents and Colleagues in each of the communities we serve. We hope to achieve this mission through providing the kindest possible care to Residents. Founded in 2011, our objective is to make a real difference to the lives of older men and women in communities throughout the UK. With over 300 care homes, we’re proud to provide positive, personalised care and support to more than fourteen thousand Residents who live in our homes, encompassing memory care, nursing, residential and specialist care. At HC-One, we’re pleased to work with, train and develop more than twenty thousand caring Colleagues who deliver round-the-clock care and support.

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

My key duty and responsibility were looking at their clinical waste and other waste such as their recycling.

What outputs and outcomes did you deliver for your employer?

I produced and wrote a brief on my findings and spoke about the loose ends I had found. I also provided a list of adaptations the business could take on board to improve their sustainability.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

I learnt a lot about waste and how important it is to distinguish different types as this can impact the sustainability level of a business. I also thought putting together the brief was an achievement as it consolidated all of the work from the week.

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

I found calculating the carbon footprint too difficult and needed to speak to professionals who helped me.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • Decision Making
  • Researching
  • Time and Workload Management

Attributes Developed:

  • Initiative
  • Perseverance
  • Professionalism
  • Confidence
  • Motivation

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

“I would definitely recommend applying for a job role similar to the one I undertook as I was able to gain a glimpse into a professional atmosphere. It was interesting to see how the professionals dealt with tasks and how they made decisions based on their business’s goals and aspirations. The job provided valuable experience that I will definitely take forward into future jobs.”

Employer Case Study: RAMM

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 usedGraduate 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.”

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 County Council- Employer Case Study

Name of Organisation: Devon County Council

Description of Organisation and Role: Devon County Council is the county council administering services across Devon. The members are elected every four years to reflect the electorate of each county division. Most being nominated by the large national political parties.

The main purpose of the internship was to support the Democratic process of Devon County Council to assist in ensuring those processes are carried out in accordance with statutory requirements and the Council’s Constitution and procedures and also with the promotion and encouragement of public involvement and participation through, for example, webcasting and social media.

Name of Employer: Karen Strahan

Job Title: Head of Democratic Services

Internship Scheme used:  GBP

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

Feedback:

We recruited an intern to work as a Democratic and Scrutiny Support Officer. He worked on a task group which researched air quality and congestion in Devon. This included producing a report with innovative recommendations targeted at improving air quality and congestion. The report attracted media attention with the Chair undertaking a radio interview, based on the work done by our brilliant intern. Our student became a very important part of our team.

I believe quite passionately about giving young people the opportunity to start their careers and give them a platform to move onwards and upwards. At present there was no vacant full-time position to offer so I made the decision to go through the intern process for a second time.

As a newly appointed manager, I was keen to explore the opportunities offered by the GBP. The fact that I am about to undertake a second placement is testament to the GBP and the calibre of candidates that apply for the positions. The experience was very positive, support from the University of Exeter is excellent and also a fresh face joining the team is always good to shake things up and look at how we do things differently. I recommend hiring an intern, ours was timely and smart and made a positive contribution to our organisation.

 

Restore Support Network- Employer Case Study

Name of Organisation: Restore Support Network

Description of Organisation: We are a national registered charity who provides personalised and specialist one to one support for people who are in prison prior to release, as well as those who are over the age of 50 with criminal convictions in the community with physical, mental health or social care needs.

Name of Employer: Stuart Ware

Job Title: Chief Executive Officer

Internship Scheme used:  A2I Employer subsidies (A2I) – Employment Services – University of Exeter

Feedback:

We recruited an intern to work as a Trainee Mentor and Coordinator who worked exceptionally well as part of our small team.

We were all very happy with the calibre of the student. She worked hard to meet all the objectives we set and played a lead role in developing an ex-offenders women’s group which was attended by over 10 women.

The University of Exeter student proved an enormous benefit to our charity and she contributed greatly to the development of our women’s support group. Without hesitation we would have her again placed with us. She was a great credit to the university.

We found the internship experience very positive and the contribution our intern made in our organisation was outstanding.

 

 

Data Analyst – Citizen’s Advice Bureau, Exeter

SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

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

These included analysing data from their recent wellbeing survey, specifically exploring gender and age differences and summarising my findings in a report.  I also provided recommendations on how to improve the survey. Once this was finished, I helped with research into local estate agents (specifically whether they were adhering to new laws) and trends in Universal Credit claims.

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

Being able to work independently and successfully manage my time.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I helped with research (on estate agents) and provided a comprehensive report of their survey findings.

 

Junior Mental Health Support Worker – South Somerset Mind

stress

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

My main responsibilities were to develop and deliver mental health well-being workshops across Somerset. This involved teaching service users about different aspects of mental health and providing them with various coping strategies. Within this role I also gave 1-2-1 well-being checks, carried out risk assessments, and provided telephone support and signposting to other agencies. The remainder of my time was spent on data entry: updating notes on services users and compiling data for reports. Additional roles included  designing my own session plan using research from third generation therapies, and creating and teaching mental health lessons in a local secondary school.

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

The experience was totally eye opening, I learnt more than I could ever have imagined! It was brilliant to be able to put my Psychology degree into practice and begin to understand the realities of mental health.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I brought fresh knowledge and ideas to the team, which were utilised. I also lightened my colleagues’ workloads and saved company expenditure.

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

Initially I did not have enough work to keep me busy. I promptly spoke to my line manager and she was able to give me more responsibilities and encouraged me to independently take my ideas forward by designing a new session plan for the well-being groups.

“It was very useful to have Kate. She did a great job and we have now offered her a full role” – CEO, South Somerset Mind.