Introductions

Hi,

As you’ve probably gathered from the title this is a blog all about placement years at Aston University. I opted not to do a year abroad and instead I’m working here in the UK with Friends of the Earth. I’m currently on my 10th month of a yearlong placement, so as you can imagine I’ve already done quite a bit.

Over the past 10 months I’ve done everything from recruitment to organising events. My placement’s allowed me to gain experience in areas that could be used in any career. Even though I hadn’t planned on working in the third sector working with an organisation like Friends of the Earth has provided me with loads of transferable skills.

I work pretty flexible hours so that’s allowed me to carry on with my usual Uni lifestyle. I’m still involved with societies and have plenty of time to visit friends, and I even get the occasional bit of Uni work in. Even though it’s not your usual 9 to 5 office job I still feel like I’ve been given a taste of what working life is like.

Even though I’m in a volunteer position I’ve always been treated like any other member of staff and was given quite a bit of responsibility from the day I started (I was taken to a meeting of loads of NGOs who were part of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition). A lot of the work I do is online, which meant that I was able to bring loads of skills that I already had and use them while carrying out my work.

Currently I’m working on organising two regional events and recruiting my replacement. It might seem like it’s pretty easy to organise an event, but there’s actually a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, everything from promotion materials to finding a suitable venue and caterers has to be sorted out. The trickiest part is making sure everything gets done at the right time. Recruitment’s also a long process, but it’s interesting to see it from the recruiter’s point of view (after having been a recruitee when looking for my placement).

Well I hope that this brief overview’s been useful for you, and I hope to get a chance to post again soon.
Rach