Intern Review

Everyone was very kind and helped me learn the ropes pretty quickly. The work felt very worthwhile and I learnt a lot about working with older people and generally about working in a team. Organisational skills were also a must for the work and I have much improved my time management skills.

The team who had been working together for many years did a very good job in making me feel welcome. I never felt an outsider and any mistakes I made were not held against me, instead I was shown where I went wrong and was guided with kindness in correcting my mistakes.

At first I was given constant support as I needed it, never having been in a professional environment before, but as I learnt the ropes my superiors allowed me the space to become more self reliant and confident in my work. But still when I had any problems I was never made to feel bad.

There was a lot of day to day work, with a lot of it organisational in nature. Directing volunteers for different programmes offered, managing information requests and contacting donors of halls and resources. There was also attending events and making sure they went off with no problems, something that could be very difficult.

I was given an increasing amount of responsibility as the placement went on; at first is was mainly only supervised office work with admin and data entry being my only tasks. As it went on though and I had learned the ropes, I did more independent out of office work.

I am studying a health and social care degree and hoped to work in the charity sector after graduation. This placement has given me a great insight into how it works outside the classroom as well as teaching the practical skills in planning and organisation that are essential in the real world.

There was opportunity for fun in the office and there were occasional after work events that were good for bonding between the team members. However there was a lot of work we a had to make sure got done, so any recreation was of course always going to be secondary to the work.

Others had done the placement before I had, so the staff had a good idea of how to ease me into the role. They had a scheduled plan for the first month to build up all the basic skills I needed to do the work independently and to build up my confidence.

The organization put a lot of work into my development, giving me a lot of time and support in making sure I had learnt the role. I felt I was given a tour of all the essential programs as part of the charity computer systems. I was trained in use of the phones and organisation.

I was invited to apply for a full time role after I graduate as well as given a fantastic reference that would do me very well in the charity sector. I would enjoy working full time for age UK in the future especially in the office I had my placement in.

There was only one other person doing a placement with myself, but we got on well together and were supported in helping one another learn. We socialised outside of work which I feel helped us work better in our actual placement together. We had a very supportive partnership together and learnt a lot.

The are was quite expensive as it was in a more central part of London, if I was not living with my parents in London I would not have been able to do the placement. The food outlets in the area were mostly out of my price range so I bought my own food.

It was mostly a working area so there wasn't any nightlife nearby, but its London if I need to go out I just take a train somewhere its not a big deal and not something I think matters during a work placement. There was a pub we went yo after work sometimes but that's all.

There was a lot of related activities with the charity you could take part in beyond the outline of the placement, being a general volunteer at teas and other events. There was also recreational outings that were on offer as part of a larger network of people on placements that were fun on occasion.