My SME Internship: Ellie – Disability Inc. 

Posted on by Careers Service

Hi, my name is Ellie, and I’m a PhD student in the Life Sciences Building. I carried out a 4-week SME internship in a social enterprise, Disability.Inc., which is part of a charity called WECIL. 

The internship was in the workASSURED team, who aim to remove in-work barriers for Disabled staff by providing recommendations about reasonable adjustments. I initially shadowed meetings with staff, their managers, and their HR contact and I worked with a colleague to write-up the recommendations reports. By the end of the internship, I took on my own case, which definitely pushed me outside of my comfort zone, but also showed me how much I’d learnt during my internship.

Ellie, a wheelchair user wearing an orange jumper, is smiling at the camera. She is sat on a pier next to crashing waves.
A cartoon drawing of an office scene where one person is presenting data to two other people.

During my internship, I gained a lot of confidence in how to communicate with different people, for example, being sympathetic with Disabled staff members who had barriers in work and being appreciative of constraints and contracts when talking to their managers. Through this I learnt a little about mediating potentially difficult conversations and what the word ‘reasonable’ really means. Different adjustments are needed for different impairments and what can be useful for one person with a particular impairment doesn’t always work for other individuals with the same impairment. I learnt, through research and communicating with colleagues, about different software, technology and tools which can be used to remove in-work barriers for Disabled staff.  

I also had the chance to write a policy document with a colleague, providing advice to external speakers coming to WECIL on how they can make sure their presentations are accessible for everyone. In our team meetings I learnt about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which are essentially contractual targets, and I had the chance to get some GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) training as well as learn how to use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system- before my internship, I knew very little about these topics.   

Disability Inc. logo, the social enterprise arm of WECIL. WECIL is a charity which supports Disabled people in the Bristol area.
A logo for WECIL, a charity which supports Disabled people in the Bristol area.

Ask for what you need – you might get it!  

I am a Disabled person, and I needed accommodations during my internship e.g. using an AI notetaker to take notes during meetings. I knew that carrying out the internship in an organisation that is there to help Disabled people would be very understanding, and they were! Also, the role involved mainly working from home, which suited me really well. The SME internship staff were very helpful too and agreed that I could do the internship 1-day a week over several months, to fit outside of my part-time PhD studies. I would encourage anyone who thinks the internship may be “too much” to do alongside their studies to ask for a similar accommodation, because I felt that it was a good balance for me. I would definitely recommend the SME internship scheme.   

The SME Internship Scheme logo.

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