The IKEEP programme offers students the opportunity to gain intrapreneurial training and engage with industry on knowledge exchange projects through a paid team placement with an SME.
Three undergraduates, Jack, (Economics and Management), Olivia (History and Spanish) and Kristina (Politics) recently completed one of our projects with Bristol Hub.
We spoke to them about what they have gained from the experience.
Can you tell us about your IKEEP project?
For our IKEEP placement, we took part in a project with Bristol Hub, a local branch of the national charity, Student Hubs. Bristol Hub works closely with the University of Bristol to engage students in exciting volunteering projects, helping to positively impact local communities.
We were pleased to be assigned to Bristol Hub’s team, especially considering the exciting aim of the project – helping to analyse and improve Bristol Hub’s accessibility and inclusion through a combination of firsthand research, analysis and recommendations based on our findings. This project aligned very closely with our personal values and academic backgrounds, and it means a lot to have been able to contribute in a professional setting.
What new skills did you learn from doing IKEEP?
Our four-week experience with Bristol Hub gave us the opportunity to work on a range of new skills such as;
- Developing recruitment and advertising strategy
- Designing and running our own focus group and questionnaire
- Analysing the resulting data, writing up a report based on our findings and making recommendations for further action
- Teamwork, collaborative skills and personal organisation.
All of these skills are highly valuable for both our studies and future employment, and it was a great experience to work on them as a team!
What challenges did you overcome?
All three of us are final or second-year students on different courses, so aligning our schedules was one difficulty. We overcame this by scheduling to meet each week using a combination of online and in-person meetings. We also divided up tasks to support each other – when one team member was particularly busy or was not feeling well, the other two would step in and take over some of the work.
What would you say to other students considering enrolling in the IKEEP programme?
“Working on this placement with Bristol Hub massively boosted my confidence and social skills. Helping research and identify accessibility and inclusion approaches was incredibly fulfilling, and it felt great to contribute some of my knowledge to a positive cause.” – Kristina
“I developed key communicative and team-working skills whilst working on an inspiring and interesting project. It strengthens your CV drastically and gives you so much more to talk about in interviews.” – Jack
“Work experience is a great way to meet new people, expand your current skillset and develop entirely new capabilities. Having completed the placement, I feel good about my future career prospects, and I got a chance to explore how local enterprises function.” – Olivia
Find out more
If you’re interested in participating in the IKEEP programme next academic year, you can find out more on our website.
Check out our “IKEEP” blog series to hear more student stories.
If you have any questions about the programme or anything else relating to careers you can speak to us on live chat, or pop into 5 Tyndall Avenue from Monday to Friday, 10 am to 4.30 pm during term time.