Hi, I’m Finnuala, a third year student of Liberal Arts.
Finding gateways into the non-profit sector can be challenging, and an internship is a good way to gain some experience, make some connections, and find your niche. I reached out to a charity based locally to me, Education For The Children (EFTC), and with the support of the SME Scheme completed a part-time, three-month internship with them after graduating.
EFTC is a small organisation running a school in Guatemala for disadvantaged children. They also provide nutritional, health and special needs support. As part of the small, UK-based outreach team, my role was diverse and included a variety of communications and marketing tasks. I was welcomed into the team and felt able to make real contributions.
Roles, responsibilities and challenges
I joined over the busy Christmas period, when we’d be working on the end of year campaign. From the beginning, I was involved in conversations about how to frame and market the campaign to maximise its potential impact. I also had the responsibility of designing flyers and social media content, plus preparing resources to share with local businesses as part of our outreach. A particular highlight was the chance to take responsibility for the researching, writing and production of the quarterly newsletter.
During my internship I gained experience with a variety of platforms – such as Mailchimp, Squarespace and Canva. One of the challenges included liaising with Guatemala or US-based staff in order to collect up-to-date information from the school – made difficult by a language barrier and six-hour time difference!
How my degree helped me
My Liberal Arts background helped me situate my internship work within an understanding of contemporary Latin American culture, history and development as I’d spent time studying the dynamics and tensions that non-profits function within, particularly on international and intercultural scales. I’ve found that a lot of the work my internship involved required the ability to communicate with language sensitivities, considering both our supporters (large and small) and the scrutiny that a larger community of humanitarianism is subject to.
This internship experience helped me develop transferable new skills and allowed me to take on professional responsibilities. It has been a fantastic insight, and very valuable work experience, facilitated by the financial support of the SME scheme. Non-profit organisations, particularly small ones, often don’t have the funds or resources to spare. With partial external funding, I was able to gain valuable experience, and they had access to low-cost extra help.
I would highly encourage anyone to take up the support the SME Internship Scheme offers. It is an amazing opportunity. If you can’t find a role which suits your particular interests, don’t be afraid to reach out to the organisations you are excited by!
Want to be an SME Intern?
The scheme is now open for applications. There are 2 ways to find an internship through the scheme:
- Apply for advertised roles through mycareer. There is no limit to how many you can apply for, but you can only undertake one SME Internship per academic year.
- Approach SMEs that you would like to work for and ask them to take you on.
You can find out more about the SME Internship Scheme on our website.
Check out our “My SME Internship” blog series to hear more student stories.
If you have any questions about the scheme, writing your application, or anything else relating to careers you can speak to us on live chat, or pop in to 5 Tyndall Avenue.
