2014 is upon us and I've just joined the guys and girls at Wired Sussex. My role over the next 18 months is to work alongside Caroline, as the Project Coordinator on their exciting new Intern Placement Programme (IPP). This follows the success of their previous Sussex Internship Programme.
My background is a culmination of creativity and resource solutions - I realise this sounds slightly peculiar, but that's the truth of it. Prior to starting at Wired Sussex I was working within a Brighton based recruitment firm as a Digital Project Coordinator. My role within the company originally began as a Recruitment Consultant, which involved sourcing candidates from across the UK and Europe. Briefs could include anything from finding recent graduates aiming to become fully certified in network engineering, to highly experienced professionals for permanent and temporary projects. This role quickly evolved into calibrating on a day to day with the firms Digital Project Manager. It was our job to develop a new practice within the firm - ensuring that the right processes were set in place to make it profitable, but also to make sure that our services met our client's needs. What remained paramount to us, was making sure that we knew the businesses we worked with. Not just to deliver on their KPI's , but also to make sure our approach was in line with the cultural fit of their firms.
After witnessing firsthand the lengths that businesses go to in order to find the right person for the job, the Internship Placement Programme is something I feel extremely excited about. It's an incredible opportunity for interns and businesses to collaborate and to find a middle ground between gaining and nurturing talent, that's in line with their business needs. Ensuring that Interns gain that essential foot in the door exposure and that businesses can fully benefit from fresh energy and ideas.
This isn’t to say that we don’t expect a fair few challenges along the way. Being ready to tackle these challenges will remain key to the success of the programme. Whilst Caroline may know your faces, businesses and the type of people you would welcome in with open arms, I'm going to be playing catch up. My aim is to familiarise myself with what you do and what your company is about. I realise that talent and cultural fit go hand in hand and this is something I want to work hard to get spot on.
This week has involved creating and upgrading our online portal for the scheme. After drafting a project plan for online resources (as well as sourcing, hiring and briefing our designer, web build and UX companies) we're going to be getting our heads stuck into driving the project’s promotion. We have already received 50+ exciting responses from businesses in the region (even before launching) and we are gaining momentum in pushing the programme forward.
So there you have it, a bit of an introduction, a bit of a ramble (that's up for debate). I hope to meet as many of you involved as possible over the coming weeks and months and will look forward to sharing with you our challenges and successes over the next year.
In the meantime, for more information about programme please visit http://placements.wiredsussex.com/ or drop me a line at rachel@wiredsussex.com.
Happy (belated) new year and thanks for reading!
Rach
