During July and August, several students joint our team as part of our Summer Placement, working across the Brothers of Charity Services in England. The purpose of the BOCS Summer Placements Programme is to give young adults and students the opportunity to gain new skills and knowledge and to get experience working in a different environment before moving onto the next stage of their life. Many of the people who took part in the programme are in the middle of completing a degree at University, or are studying at college or for an apprenticeship.
The Summer Placement students worked in a range of departments within the organisation to get a feel of how each area runs, including Learning and Development, Payroll, HR, Marketing, Finance, IT, Reception and Administration. This helped the students to gain an idea of possible future careers and experience what it is like to work in a busy office environment. Working in different departments has also helped the students to develop their skills and gain an understanding into how the organisation works.
All of the students thoroughly enjoyed their time working at the Brothers of Charity Services and said they would definitely recommend the scheme to others.
We asked the students on the Summer Placement programme to give advice to people on next year’s programme. Many said they would advise others who take this opportunity to be confident and ask for help when you need it and not to worry about coming into a new environment with new people, as everyone is so welcoming.
They also advised future students to get to know all the different departments within the organisation and to be approachable; ‘once you get to know everybody to becomes more enjoyable being around the workplace as you feel more confident and can speak to anybody if you have any queries’. The students said they all feel that they have learnt a valuable lesson during their time with the Brothers of Charity Services that will help massively in the future and feel it is a great company to be involved in.
Everybody had a different favourite experience during their placement. Including working as a team; being trusted with other responsibilities; completing training sessions; working in the IT department; updating spread sheets for Learning and Development; being able to see how all the different departments run and how they make the business run effectively; and working in health and safety, as you get to spend some time out of the office, enabling you to meet more people within the company. One students favourite experience, was finding how the clients needs are carefully and respectfully seen through risk assessments and support plans.
It was a pleasure to have all the Summer Placement students working here over the past few months and it was great to see them all fit in so well within the team! We wish them all the luck in the future and hope they put the skills and knowledge they learnt here into practice.
If you are interested in our Summer Placement Programme for 2019, please contact our Learning and Development team by calling 0300 123 2225 or email info@brothersofcharity.org.uk for more information.
