Work experience placements in the charity sector can boost diversity, build confidence and provide exposure to career options for young people

In June this year, we were approached by year 12 A-level student, Amma, who asked if she could undertake part of her work experience at the charity.
We were delighted to be able to accommodate her and have reflected on the experience and what we learned about ourselves and what we hoped we were able to offer.

I recall many many years ago my own work experience when I was 16 years old. In my school at the time, we had very few options, but I was lucky enough to get a 1 week placement at the BBC safety department. This may sound quite glamourous but what it mainly consisted of was sitting in a room complete a 12-hour online health and safety course for several days. I did get to walk around the iconic BBC Television Studio “doughnut” and visit the sets of Blue Peter & The Generation Game. And despite these highlights what I mostly took away from the experience was work can be quite boring and I really don’t enjoy early morning commutes.

I was keen to ensure Amma had a much better experience than my own. We wanted to highlight the diverse nature of what it means to work in a small charity and how this can be both challenging and rewarding physically, emotionally, and academically in equal measures.
A Cromwellian “warts & all” take, with as much emphasis on the “all” and not just the warts.

So with that in mind, Amma hit the ground running and was presented with the report from our community listening exercise and our draft strategy and asked to make comments and observations. I feel it’s important that our plans and how we communicate them should be just as accessible to potential beneficiaries as much as they are to a potential funder. Amma provided us with a fresh perspective and asked thoughtful questions about the detail of the report which helped us massively.

On the same day Amma joined us at the head office of one of the major local funders, Impact on Urban Health, part of the Guy’s & St Thomas’s Charitable Trust. The Trust had organised a Cost-of-Living workshop. The workshop was led by, Amy Gutcher, CFO of Sumerian Partners.

The workshop helped us to think about different options for small charities at this moment in time and how what risks and opportunities are available to them. Amma was the youngest person in the room and the facilitator, Amy, was excellent at including her in the conversations. Amma’s insights again were unique and challenged us all.

Having an interest in finance, Amma was able to gain some understanding on the role it plays in the charity sector. It was especially beneficial to learn from the Amy who has a wealth of experience in the area.

For the remaining two days Amma supported the delivery of mission projects and each one was changed by her fresh approach. From how we laid out refreshments for our over 60s exercise class to the preparation and packing of the BRITE boxes. Having Amma added a new spark to some of our repetitive tasks. We began to see the new again.

And what did the experience do for Amma? She reflected on how different it was from what she expected. The highlights included meeting and interacting with such a wide diversity of different people from age to gender to different life circumstance. The opportunity to see the level of detail and planning that goes into delivering projects as well as getting a sense of how much can be changed by the work of charities.

At the end of her time, I asked Amma if she would now be planning to work for a charity? She replied, “maybe when I’m old, like your age”.

So we still have some work to do