Amelie Shaw is a third-year criminology and sociology student at The University of Nottingham. She recently completed a voluntary placement as an Admin Support intern at The Ann Craft Trust. We asked her to reflect on her experiences.
Being part of the small and friendly Ann Craft Trust team has been thoroughly enjoyable.
I have gained valuable experience from my time at the Ann Craft Trust, and I look forward to taking this with me into my career in the non-profit sector.
A Focus on eLearning
My placement work included working on the Ann Craft Trust’s eLearning courses.
I focused on:
- Improving the user experience on the existing courses
- Editing and correcting information to tailor the courses to different safeguarding legislation
- Creating new courses about safeguarding adults in specific industries
- Making the courses informative and visually stimulating for users
- Undertaking various administrative work to assist the smooth running of safeguarding events for organisations using the Ann Craft Trust’s services
Nottingham Nightline
A key project involved coordinating with Nottingham Nightline to create a dedicated safeguarding eLearning course.
This involved communicating with the students on the Nightline committee to tailor the training to their policies and procedures. We also added Nightline-relevant case studies to the training, and ran tests to ensure that the course was up to standard.
This project was particularly rewarding, as it involved student-to-student contact. Also, I worked on it throughout my placement, and it was great to finally get the course up and running. We enrolled the first Nightline attendees at the beginning of April.
Skills I Have Gained
My time at the Ann craft Trust helped me to gain knowledge of safeguarding and safeguarding legislation through training. It also helped me develop many skills which will guide me into my professional life.
These skills include efficient communication, Excel proficiency, and hybrid working. Furthermore, taking on different tasks and having my role and workload shift over the course of the placement has helped me develop my ability to work flexibly. Attending meetings with different members of the Ann Craft Trust team allowed me to gain valuable insights into the inner workings of a growing charity.
Continuing With The Ann Craft Trust
I will continue to support the Ann Craft Trust over the summer with some part time work, assisting the team with their workload due to staff absence. This will allow me to expand on my knowledge as a placement student and further develop my skills and understanding of the workings of a small charity. All of this experience will prove highly valuable in my future career.
Summary
Working as an intern at the Ann Craft Trust has been an enjoyable and informative experience. It opened my eyes to the importance of making safeguarding everyone’s responsibility.
The friendly team has shared their career journeys with me. They gave me insight into the types of work on offer in non-profit organisations, as well as the day-to-day work involved in running a small charity.
I would recommend The Ann Craft Trust to any student looking to take on a placement. It has been a flexible and valuable opportunity, and a refreshing change from my third-year university work.