Facilities Management Intern Review

In general I found my placement experience satisfying and rewarding HOWEVER PLEASE BE CAREFUL BEFORE YOU ACCEPT - for the last 5 or so years all interns, regardless of department, have been told to help in the contact centre for the winter months (September-March). This involves responding on the phone offering support for people with no heating/hot water, etc. For 2019-2020 the total hours of this were 8 hours a week aka ONE FULL DAY. While in my case I didn't find it too bad I know a lot of people who hated it. It is a good company and a good placement experience but please be aware of this as it is not clearly expressed in the application process (and may change from the writing of this review, so do ask).

I appreciated the fact that I had a small team and the atmosphere is very friendly. Depending on your position/department, interns hold a more or less important role, nevertheless, there is always an opportunity to make a difference. For the contact centre, the trainers are amazing (though training is too short and too much is expected from us), however, the general 'Supervisor' support ranges from good to very poor.

There is usually a handover period with the previous intern to get to grips with the systems/job, which is useful. The team is also available to help. Management do not get very involved with interns which is understandable.

Workload is very seasonal - in the winter months or in the end of the budget year you will be given more work to do, while the first couple of summer months can feel slow and sluggish.

In my case, managing small to medium projects on-site, which is a big responsibility, however, I could not sign documents for myself as an intern, I always had to get someone else's signature.

One thing to note is that WB is very inflexible with interns and their departments, so switching around is impossible unless you request a day of shadowing. For this reason, I acquired very useful skills in the area I was specialising in but not as a whole when considering the whole scope of my degree. As well as my first longer job I obtained general workplace skills.

Good. Relaxed and social. I was given a lot of freedom in terms of workload/time management. Though this depends on the team you're put into (its size, etc).

Good, nothing to complain as there is not much to organize apart from being put into a team for a specific amount of time. It is up to the previous intern to set the IT equipment/access/etc and mine was very good.

Not much at all. The handover period with the previous intern is most of the training that you will obtain for your role. There isn't much done to keep track of you during the internship apart from short conversations (though this depends on department). As well, the contact centre training is good but very short, especially considering that most of us do not have previous CSA experience. This led (at least in my case) to make mistakes which lead to company money being lost due to complaints being made. Apart from this 5-day training, you do not receive any further training/advice unless someone comes in to give you constructive feedback for something you did wrong (which they know of because of a customer complaint).

There are graduate opportunities but these depend on the department.

There are 50+ interns in the company so if you make the effort to socialize (going to the canteen, etc) there is a very good atmosphere within the company.

Low compared to other places I've studied in the UK.

Better than expected, Worcester has a variety of nightclubs and bars to enjoy.

Not initiated by the company (apart from one or two). Again, it is up to the interns to make the effort to organise plans for the weekend. In my case it was great as there are a lot of things to do surrounding Worcester (Birmingham, Malvern Hills, etc)