Intern Review

I enjoyed the virtual experience a lot. Working with experts in teaching was a true blessing. There were many fun activities to take part in. Taking part in these activities helped me gain some extremely valuable skills which I know will help me in the future. In fact, I will now be using these skills to help me with teaching the students that I already teach. There were times where it may have seemed boring but this didn't last long.

I felt very valued at the company. Before it was decided that this would be an online internship, Teach First were going to pay for travel, accommodation and also any food costs. This shows that the company intended to treat us very well. However, after it was decided that it would be an online internship, I would have felt even more valued if the company had decided to make this a paid internship. Doing this would make each candidate feel more valued.

During the virtual experience, I was given a huge amount of support. As a group of candidates, we were given collective feedback to the tasks we would complete. Also, I would be given feedback from my peers which would help me develop my teaching skills even more. We would take part in some deliberate practice exercises which would give an opportunity to display some of the skills that we had learnt in training and receive feedback on this. Also, we would receive individual feedback from a facilitator.

The skills that I developed would definitely help me with teaching. If I choose to pursue a career in teaching, these skills that I developed will be very useful. It would help me in university for those tasks where I am required to work in a group. The group tasks that we took part in were really good and it ensured that everybody had an input into the group tasks. This will now help with group projects in university.

The virtual experience was quite well structured. They had one day of giving the candidates information. On this day, they also had some parts where the candidates could get some practice using the skills and information that they gave. On the second day, there was an opportunity to get a lot of practice in teaching and receiving feedback and acting upon this feedback. On the third day, there were assessments to take part in. The only thing I would say is perhaps giving two days for giving information would have been more useful.

There was a very friendly atmosphere. The people hosting this virtual experience were extremely friendly. They seemed like very kind people and I knew that if I needed any sort of support at all, I could go to them. Also, the other candidates that I worked with were also very friendly. Each candidate showed support to the other candidates and took into consideration what each person was saying. Although this was a virtual experience, Teach First still helped us to build a good network with each other.

Prior to the main days, we were given online training. This training was extremely useful and it helped a lot on the main days. This training did take a lot of time and there was an assessment to see if we had passed the training. However, there was not a payment for the training process. It would have been nice if we were paid in some way or another for going through training such as giving gift vouchers etc.

The virtual experience helped a lot to understand what it would be like to have a full time role with the company. They did this by bringing in people who have a full time role with the company or had a full time role with the company and had them speak to us about their time with Teach First. They also held a Q&A session which gave us the opportunity to ask any questions we may have had about working with Teach First

There were some aspects about this virtual experience that helped us in understanding the company culture. There were a few mentions of what the company does and how they help disadvantaged students across the country. However, there could have been more. To understand the company culture, I researched the company myself after I met with someone at Teach First when they came to my university on careers day. I was inspired by what they do. However, they could have made more mentions about it during this virtual experience.

The content was extremely valuable in helping me decide my future career path. After going through the content, I have decided that I would like to pursue a career in teaching. Going through this experience has persuaded me to try to find a teaching role that will give me the opportunity to help disadvantaged students and this is the main mission of Teach First. I share the same mission as Teach First and for this reason, I intend to find my career with them.

For this experience, I was not paid or reimbursed expenses. Before it was decided that this would be a virtual experience, the company intended to make sure that any expenses that this internship would cause would be reimbursed. However, this internship was then held online so there were not any expenses to reimburse. However the money that they planned to use for our expenses should have been given to us as a payment for completing this internship. Doing this would have made this internship more rewarding.

There was an opportunity for meeting lots of employees at this firm. Before the virtual experience began, there was a welcome webinar where we met two employees working at the company. After this, there were many employees that we met during the main days of the internship. There was ambassador Q&A panel session where we met lots of employees. Also, we met some facilitators who also work for the company. Also, our assessors work for the company.

During the welcome webinar, we had the opportunity to meet other candidates in breakout rooms on zoom. Also, on the very first day, we also got to take part in a little game which allowed us to network with other candidates. Also, during the breaks, there was an opportunity to network with the other candidates. In addition to this, there is a Facebook group which each candidate has been invited to join, allowing the candidate to get to know each other better.

There was a lot of information on the activities that employees could get involved with in regards to working with the company. However, there was not much of a mention about the activities to get involved with outside of work. Since this company is actually a charity, it would have been useful to get to know about activities which we could get involved in outside of work. Some examples are charity runs or cycles or anything to raise money for the charity.

I would definitely recommend this virtual experience to a friend. In fact, immediately after this virtual experience was over, I told a friend all about it and my friend said that had he known about it, he would also have chosen to take part in it. He has decided to take part in other activities that Teach First may have. Also, next year, I will be recommending other friends from uni to take part in this same experience.