Internal and Corporate Communications Assistant Review

I have enjoyed it a lot. Throughout my placement I have faced certain difficult situations with management and overall department changing but despite this it has been an invaluable experience.

Most of the time I feel valued. Again with management changing it has been harder to adjust to different managing techniques and styles and with a lot of the company changing it is often that you can find yourself not knowing the situation or where you stand as an employee.

This has been one of the strongest factors throughout the year. I have had a lot of support from not only my department but by the mentor programme provided here at Vauxhall Motors and by fellow undergraduates.

This is an area that I feel could improve for a lot of current undergraduates. It has seemed to be that you would have a month or two of a very high workload and then less in some. I have enjoyed the work I have done very much so.

I believe that undergraduates are entrusted with a lot of responsibility. We have often been left to lead meetings, manage projects and figure out solutions to issues. It has been great to be relied on in certain situations.

The skills I have developed here will help me greatly for my future. Less so with my university degree but overall in my applications with future jobs. I am now able to reflect on what I can do to improve, how I work in certain working environments and how important communication is. A year placement will always be the most valuable part of my degree.

I believe with all of the changes going on in the organisation the general atmosphere has been quite stressful for a lot of employees as there is a level of uncertainty in the air. This is reinforced with the rumours going around of what will happen.

This has been very well organised with the help of the Undergraduate Programme Assistant. I often have access to any resources I may need and have had all my appropriate training and inductions necessary to start the year.

I felt that there could be some more training in regards to personal i.e. tone of voice or Excel training which we didn't get to do this year. Overall I feel like it was quite rushed in the beginning in regards to the training so maybe to spread it throughout the year would be better?

This isn't an option. I completely understand why, with so many employees having left and not knowing the future plans of the company there aren't going to be any options for us. This also wasn't promised to me when I joined so I don't feel upset by this.

I got on my with my housemates well and other houses that had moved to Luton for the placement. Students who had moved here often made effort to try and see each other or organise things with each other.

My rent is higher than I expected and my deposit for the house on the student pack was very high. This made entering the year slightly stressful as we had to sign the contract straight away but overall the cost of socialising and general cost of living isn't that high so alright overall.

There a lot of pubs and restaurants in areas around Luton and some in Luton. I wouldn't recommend being alone in Luton late at night but generally can be quite fun. It helps that there is a university here so often a sense of a student nightlife which is familiar to all of the undergrads on placement.

In Internal Communications this area of my role was cut, to organise these types of activities. As a result this area really just depended on the individual undergrad and who you lived with.