interns

Bath Spa University’s policy of recruiting its own budding talent as graduate interns is rapidly bearing fruit.  Three 2012 Bath Spa graduates – in History, Drama, and Business & Management – are working on development projects for the Enterprise & Local Partnerships Department at the University.

Each graduate intern is responsible for a core project, which they will work on throughout their 12 week internship. However, they will experience a range of other tasks and schemes by rotating to another of the Department’s three teams every four weeks. As well as bringing new expertise to the Department and a refreshing insight of its services from a recent student perspective, the graduates gain a broad spectrum of employability skills to enhance their CVs and an insight into the type of work undertaken in the education sector.

Harriet Formby is using the knowledge gained on her Business & Management degree - together with her experience of participating in Bath Spa’s annual business plan competition as a finalist – to research and establish a student enterprise society. This will directly benefit future generations of Bath Spa students, many of whom freelance or set themselves up as sole traders after graduation.

Lucy Plant graduated with a BA Drama and is looking for a marketing role in social media. Speaking of the employability skills this internship is giving her a part of her career development plan, Lucy said: “I’m gaining practical experience of writing content for web pages, developing brand identities and promotional material for marketing campaigns, and there’ll even be some filming to be involved with. It’s really exciting to be part of a team and to see my ideas used.”

James Lazenby has found that the strong research, analysis and database skills he developed during his BA History degree have been transferable to the internship project he’s been working on. This has benefited the work of the Careers Consultants, as it has identified improvements that can be made to its processes and systems, to give a better service to students next academic year.

Adam Powell, Head of Enterprise & Local Partnerships at Bath Spa University, says; “We have been impressed by the calibre and expertise of our graduate interns. They have enabled us to do pieces of work we otherwise would not have had the resource to achieve. We welcome them as valued members of our team and will certainly look to offer similar internship opportunities in the future because they are mutually beneficial.”

Employers with work experience placements and internships to offer to Bath Spa University students and graduates can contact enterprise@bathspa.ac.uk.