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.